CLAM/UERJ: Centro Latino-Americano em Sexualidade e Direitos Humanos da
Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Latin American Center on Sexuality
and Human Rights of the State University of Rio de Janeiro)

CNAS: Conselho Nacional de Assistência Social (National Council of
Social Assistance)

SPDCA/SEDH: Subsecretaria de Promoção dos Direitos da
Criança e do Adolescente da Secretaria Especial de Direitos
Humanos
(Under-Secretariat for the Promotion of the Rights of Children and
Adolescents of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights)

SPM/PR: Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres da
Presidência da República (Special Secretariat of Policies for
Women of the Presidency of the Republic)

SRJ/MJ: Secretaria de Reforma do Judiciário do Ministério da
Justiça (Judicial Reform Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice)

SUAS: Sistema Único de Assistência Social (Single System of
Social Assistance)

1. In the period of this report — 2006 to 2009 — we should
emphasize the change of status of the Secretariat, which no
longer is
“Special” and now is a part of the structure of the Presidency of
the Republic as an “essential organ”
according to Provisory Measure
(Medida Provisória) No. 483/2010.

2. Another new fact is that the heads of the Secretariat are a part of the
Council for Economic and Social Development (CDES). The
CDES is presided over by
the President of the Republic and has a consultative character, with the task of
proposing the measures
necessary to promote the growth of the country.

3. The International Women’s Day (March 8, 2010) was commemorated by
the Secretariat of Policies for Women (SPM) with a cultural
program in
Leopoldina Station in Rio de Janeiro, with the slogan “More Autonomy, More
Citizenship and Less Violence for Brazilian
Women.” The event marked the
occasion of the commemorative closing and gathered together more than 6,000
women. It enjoyed
the participation of Minister Nilcea Freire and the President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

4. On this occasion a Protocol of Intentions was signed which foresees the
installation of a work group to analyze the creation of
the Brazilian
Women’s Memorial. The space should function as an interactive museum with
the registration of the participation
of women in episodes of the history of the
country.

5. Another matter stressed is the balance of the policies for women, made by
the SPM. Since its creation in 2003, the SPM has articulated
the promulgation of
46 new normative instruments for the benefit of Brazilian women —
especially the Maria da Penha Law stands
out — the increasing of the
maternity leave to 180 days and the mini-electoral reform.

6. In the actions for the prevention and combat of violence, the number of
attendances made by the Central Telephone for Attention
to Women “Call
180” – 923,878 attendances and also the growth of 179% in the
Network of Attention to Women in a
Situation of Violence.” Today there are
68 shelter houses, 146 Centers of Reference, 56 nuclei for Specialized Attention
of
the Public Defender’s Offices, 475 police stations or police posts
specialized in attention to women, 147 specialized judicial
sections for
domestic and family violence against women, 19 nuclei of State Public Ministries
specialized in violence, 8 Nuclei for
Combating the traffic of persons and seven
services of making the aggressor responsible for his acts.

Articles 1, 2 and 3

7. As noted in previous reports, all Brazilian federal legislation is valid
and obligatory nationwide. The states and the Federal
District must comply with
federal laws, and the municipalities with federal and state laws. The Union, the
States, the Federal District
and the Municipalities — the four federal
entities — are endowed with political, administrative and financial
autonomy,
and have the ability to self-organize, since each one exercises a
share of political power from the Brazilian State.

8. The Brazilian system is based on the principle of equality. The Federal
Constitution, promulgated in 1988, in its 5th article, states that “men
and women have equal rights and obligations”, thus establishing
the
fundamental basis of equality between men and women in our country. Also in its
Article 7, the Federal Constitution prohibits the difference in wages, functions
and criteria for employment due to sex, age, color or marital status. Several
investments
are still being made towards the elimination of discriminatory
provisions contained in different codes and laws of Brazil, as will
be specified
throughout this report.

9. The Brazilian government also has been promoting a process of judicial
reform with the main objective of allowing greater flexibility
and transparency
in the administration of justice in the country. Among the important measures of
the Judicial Reform, the highlight
gives to the Attorney-General of the Republic
the ability to move any proceeding or investigation to the Federal Court in
cases of
serious violations against human rights. Such measure is intended to
“federalize” crimes in order to prevent that local
justices
perpetuate impunity — as has occurred in several cases referred to
international courts — and ensure fulfillment
of the obligations due from
international treaties signed by Brazil.

10. The female caucus of the House and Senate is the national mechanism for
gender equality in the Legislature, acting in partnership
with the Special
Secretariat of Policies for Women of the Presidency of the Republic (SPM/PR), in
order to develop strategies to
increase women’s participation in positions
of power and decision-making. The female caucus in the National Congress
continues
to work in close coordination with the SPM/PR, conducting workshops
and public hearings, creating special committees, proposing and
accelerating the
processing of legislation of interest to Brazilian women.

11. The female caucus of the House of Representatives, which has official
representation in the College of Leaders of the House, is
currently composed of
45 female deputies from 11 parties. In the Senate, the caucus is composed by 10
female senators from four parties
(see Article 7). The female caucus has been
working to include the gender discussion in all major subjects of the House
agenda, such
as the economic crisis, the political reform and the changes in the
Civil Code. The caucus is an important achievement for the female
deputies
because it shows how much they are advancing in their claims and that now they
can be formally heard in the most important
legislative decisions.

12. Among the legal provisions approved in the period covered by this report,
we highlight the Law 11,340/2006, the Maria da Penha
Law of August 7, 2006,
which establishes mechanisms to restrain the domestic and family violence
against women under the terms of
§ 8 of article 226 of the Constitution,
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) and the Inter-American Convention on the
Prevention, Punishment, and
Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do
Pará, 1994); makes provision
about the creation of Special Courts for
Domestic and Family Violence against Women; changes the Code of Criminal
Procedure, the
Penal Code and the Penal Execution Law, and other measures.12.
The law is available at:
http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2004-2006/2006/Lei/L11340.htm

13. Other laws passed during the period that strengthened the women’s
social developments were:

• Law No. 11,804, of November 5, 2008, which regulates the right to
food support for pregnant women and how it is exercised
and other measures.
Available at:

• Law No. 11,770 of September 9, 2008, which establishes the Corporate
Citizenship Program to extend maternity leave by granting
tax incentives and
amends the Law No. 8,212, of July 24, 1991. Available at:

• Law No. 11,664 of April 29, 2008, which disposes about the execution
of health activities to ensure the prevention, detection,
treatment and
monitoring of breast and cervical cancer within the Single Health System (SUS)
Available at:

• Law No. 11,634 of December 27, 2007, which disposes about the right
of pregnant women to know and to have a connection with
the maternity ward where
will receive assistance under the Single Health System (SUS). Available at:

• Law No. 11,441 of January 3, 2007, which amends provisions of Law
5,869 of January 11, 1973 – the Civil Procedure Code,
allowing for the
realization of probate, the division of property, consensual separation and
consensual divorce administratively.
Available at:

• Law No. 11,324 of July 19, 2006, which amends provisions of Law No.
9,250 of December 26, 1995; Law 8,212 of July 24, 1991;
Law 8213 of July 24,
1991; and Law 5,859 of December 11, 1972; and revokes provisions of Law No. 605
of January 5, 1949. It deals
with the deduction by the domestic employer
from his income tax of his part of the contribution paid to Social Security as a
domestic
employer. Available at:

• Law No. 11,112 of May 13, 2005, amending Article 1,121 of Law No.
5,869 of January 11, 1973 – The Civil Procedure Code,
to include as an
indispensable prerequisite to the application of consensual separation the
agreement between the spouses on the
visits schedule to younger children.
Available at:

• Law No. 11,108 of April 7, 2005, amending Law No. 8,080 of September
19, 1990, to ensure to women in childbirth the right
to have the presence of a
companion during labor, delivery and immediately after delivery under the Single
Health System –
SUS. Available at:

14. The publication of the following decrees in the period of coverage of
this report also should be noted:

• Decree No. 6,690 of December 11, 2008, establishing the Program for
Extension of Maternity Leave to Pregnant and Adoptive
parents, establishing the
criteria for adhering to the program and other measures. Available at:

• Decree No. 6,572 of September 17, 2008, which gives new wording to
article 4 of Decree No. 5390 of March 8, 2005, approving
the National Plan of
Policies for Women – PNPM and establishing the Committee for Coordinating
and Monitoring. Available at:

• Decree No. 6,481 of June 12, 2008, which regulates articles 3,
paragraph “d”, and article 4 of Convention 182
of the International
Labor Organization (ILO), which deals with the prohibition of the worst forms of
child labor and immediate action
for its elimination, approved by Legislative
Decree No. 178 of December 14, 1999, and promulgated by Decree No. 3,597 of
September
12, 2000, among other measures. Available at:

• Decree No. 6,384 of February 27, 2008, which gives new wording to
item 6 of article 16 of Social Security Regulation, passed
by Decree No. 3,048
of May 6, 1999 with the following wording for item 6: “ A stable union is
considered to be one established
by living publicly, continuously and lastingly
between a man and a woman, with intention to form a family, observing item 1 of
article
1,723 of the Civil Code, as established by Law No. 10,406 of January 10,
2002.” Available at:

• Decree No. 6,269 of November 22, 2007, which amends and adds
provisions to Decree 5,390 of March 8, 2005, which approves the
National Plan of
Policies for Women – PNPM and establishes the Committee for Coordination
and Monitoring. Available at:

• Decree No. 5,948 of October 26, 2006, which approves the National
Policy to Combat Human Trafficking and establishes the Interministerial
Working
Group with the aim of drawing up a proposal of the National Plan to Combat Human
Trafficking – PNETP. Available at:

• Decree No. 7,052 of December 23, 2009, regulating Law No. 11,770 of
September 9, 2008, which established the Corporate Citizenship
Program, designed
to extend maternity leave to female workers of legal entities. Voluntary program
for private sector companies to
post-puerperal women and adoptive mothers.
Available at:

15. Important actions have been undertaken in order to contribute to the
consolidation of an integrated national policy for social
inclusion and
reduction of social inequalities generating jobs, income and employment,
promotion and expansion of citizenship, with
specific policies for segments with
particular needs and demands such as rural, black and disabled women among
others. In 2009, the
Special Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial
Equality (SEPPIR/PR) and the National Council of Scientific and Technological
Development (CNPq/MCT) signed a partnership agreement with the Ministry of
Education (MEC), a document of commitment for the creation
of the National
Institute of Science and Technology for Inclusion in Higher Education (INCT).
The Institute will be built as an observatory
of affirmative measures and other
policies to promote racial equality.

16. According to a survey conducted by INCT about the Inclusion in Higher
Education, headed by the professor of University of Brasilia
José Jorge
de Carvalho, Brazil currently has more than 22,000 black students enrolled in
public colleges thanks to racial
quotas. The number represents 1.7% of the total
1,240,968 students enrolled in public Higher Educational Institutions recorded
in
the Higher Education Census of 2007 – the census gathers data from 2008
and referred to the situation observed in 2007.

17. According to Carvalho, in the last seven years more black persons
enrolled in public universities than in the previous 20 years.
37.3% of the 249
public institutions in Brazil already offer affirmative measures such as bonus
score in tests and quotas for low-income
students or for those coming from
public schools. Among these institutions, 26.9% offer quotas to black persons
and Indians.

18. CNPq/MCT listed the 47 public universities benefited from the quota
system that will adopt the Institutional Programs of Scientific
Initiation
Scholarships (PIBIC) on affirmative measures. It is a pilot project consisting
of 600 scholarships of R$ 360 per month
for one year. The resources began to be
destined to higher educational institutions from 24 states in the second half of
2009. Minas
Gerais and Bahia are the ones with the largest number of
institutions covered: five each.

19. The goals of the PIBIC scholarship on affirmative actions are to expand
the opportunity for scientific education, foster research
and encourage students
to remain in academia. The choice prioritized universities that are pioneering
in racial and social quotas
and score bonus – criteria added to the
existing standards.

20. Another objective of the CNPq/MCT is to correct a distortion. In Brazil,
the rate of scientific production has grown 200% over
the past 10 years, rising
from just over 10,000 to 30,145 articles indexed by the Institute for Scientific
Information (ISI). However,
the ethnic/racial invisibility of other sectors of
society is also reproduced in the field of knowledge.

21. Regarding maternity leave, on 9 September 2008, Law No. 11,770 was
enacted, establishing the Corporate Citizenship Program. This
law enables and
specifies the condition for extension of maternity leave for a period of 180
days voluntarily by private companies
and all public administration spheres. In
December 2008, the Federal Government started to implement the six months
maternity leave
for its female public servants and, as a result of women’s
struggle in the states, various state and local public administrative
bodies
joined the maternity leave of 180 days, a total of 14 units of the federation
and 108 municipalities.

Article 5

22. Regarding the fight against violence in Brazil, we highlight the
importance of the development and implementation of the National
Policy for
Combating Violence against Women from 2003. This policy aims to establish
concepts, principles and guidelines to ensure
a joint and integrated operation
of the Brazilian State in preventing, combating, assisting and enforcing
women’s rights in
situations of violence, according to standards and
international human rights instruments, and the country’s current
law. Indeed,
since then the actions to fight violence against women ceased to be
restricted to public safety, justice and social assistance and
started to
involve different sectors of the State.

23. Developed and implemented by the SPM/PR since 2003, the National Policy
advocated conceptual and political fundamentals for the
Brazilian response to
the issue of violence against women, ensuring in the implementation of public
policies that address the issue
with an inter-sector approach, in which the
gender, ethnic-racial, income class and generation dimensions are recognized,
highlighted
and addressed. The creation of a National Policy on Combating
Violence against Women has brought investments in opening new services
(Reference Centers, Women’s Public Defender’s Office, Specialized
Courts, Specialized Police, Shelters, Health Services
and Civilian Police, among
others) and the consolidation of a Network of Specialized Care to provide
integral assistance to women
victims of violence.

24. As part of the consolidation of the National Policy on Combating Violence
against Women in Brazil during the 2005 to 2008 period,
three political
milestones of high visibility and effectiveness stand out: (a) the creation of
the Women’s Call Center number
180, (b) the enactment of Law 11,340
– the Maria da Penha Law, and (c) the installation of the National Pact on
Combating Violence
against Women in different states and municipalities.

Women’s Call Center number 180

25. The Women’s Call Center number 180 is intended to receive reports
of violence and complaints on network services, as well
as guiding the women
about their rights and sending them to the Assistance Network for Women in a
Situation of Violence when necessary.
The Call Center works through the 180
number, characterized as a public utility emergency service, and can be accessed
for free from
any telephone terminal (mobile or landline, private or public)
every day of the week, including Sundays and holidays, 24 hours a
day. The
number 180 arose from a demand of the 10,714 Law of 13 August 2003, which
authorizes the Executive to make available a nationwide
telephone service to
receive reports of violence against women. This service has proved itself to be
an important tool for analyzing
the phenomenon of violence against women,
besides producing information about the care provided, turning itself into an
instrument
that subsidizes the refinement or formulation of public policies to
address violence against women.

26. The Call Center collects registration data from women seeking the service
(age range, level of education, marital status, race/color,
among others) and
standardized details about all services provided. The calls can be classified
as: (a) information: transfer of
technical information related to the subject,
answered based on database queries, (b) reports of violence: every record of
events
related to acts of violence reported by people seeking the Call Center,
(c) complaints: record of criticisms about the inadequate
functioning of the
women’s care network services, (d) compliments: record of satisfaction
expressions from its users in relation
to the network services all over the
country, (e) suggestions: record of tenders received for improvement or actions
to combat violence
against women and (f) services: routing the clients to the
women’s care network services.

27. Another special feature that should be highlighted concerns the
methodology to route the complaints received. For every call received
by the
Call Center, in particular, for each routing to network services, the attendants
guide the women so that if they do not receive
appropriate care services they
may call 180 again to report the type of difficulty found. It is important to
note that all complaint
records are sent to the PMS/PR Ombudsman’s Office,
which receives updated records of the service and forwards and/or investigates
them according to the case.

28. Since its creation, the Call Center has presented a significant increase
in the volume of calls received and aid given. Between
2006 and 2009, there was
an increase of approximately 1,890% on total aid given, from nearly 46,423 in
the first year of operation
of the service to 401,729 in 2009. Such evolution
seems to happen not only because of technological and methodological
improvements
implemented over the first three years of the Call Center, but also
by the approval of the Maria da Penha Law and dissemination of
the service. (See
the annexed table 1.2 and graph 1.1.)

29. Considering the growing demands and the intense propaganda of the
service, in December 2009 there was a new expansion of the Call
Center. Today
the 180 Call Center has a capacity of 80 service positions with 90 channels for
receiving telephone calls and 60 active
channels for external calls. All
telephony bundles have VoIP technology and an area of Management Support has
created services to
increase the monitoring of the women’s care network
and follow up the demands of the complaints registered with the Call Center
itself.

The Maria da Penha Law – Law 11,340

30. As explained in the sixth national Brazilian report (covering the
2001–2005 period), in early 2004 the SPM/PR instituted
and coordinated a
Interministerial Working Group to prepare a bill dealing with mechanisms to
restrain domestic violence against
women (Decree 5,030 of March 31, 2004).

31. This Interministerial Working Group used the bill prepared by the
Feminist Consortium of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
as a subsidy for
their discussions, besides listening to various representatives of bodies
directly involved in the issue. After
extensive debate and seminars on November
25, 2004, the SPM/PR sent Bill No. 4,559 to the Speaker of the House of
Representatives.

32. This project initially went to the Commission on Social Security and
Family. The congresswoman Mrs. Jandira Feghali, rapporteur
of the project, then
held public hearings in the five regions of Brazil, presenting at the end a
Substitute to the Executive Bill.

33. The Substitute was unanimously approved by the Commission on Social
Security and Family, the Commission on Finance and Taxation
and the Commission
on Constitution and Justice, all from the House of Representatives. New changes
to the wording were carried out in the Commission on the Constitution and
Justice of the Senate (PLC0037/2006), converting it to Law 11,340
later. Sanctioned by the President of the Republic on 7 August
2006, it was
named Maria da Penha Law.

34. The Law 11,340/2006, which focuses on the restraining of “domestic
and family violence against women”, is a major
historical achievement in
the affirmation of women’s human rights and also represents an important
achievement of the feminist
movement and women in general, a significant advance
of the Brazilian law to combat domestic and family violence against women. It
creates mechanisms to restrain the domestic and family violence against women,
establishing measures for prevention, assistance and
protection to women in
situation of violence.

35. The law criminalizes such violence, establishes its forms, and proposes
the creation of Special Courts for domestic and family
violence against women
with civil and criminal competency, among other innovations, thus giving the
proper importance to coping with
the issue, since the previous Brazilian
legislation did not respond satisfactorily to the reality of thousands of women
that suffered
violence.

36. According to the caput of the article 5, violence against women is
“any action or omission based on gender which causes
death, injury,
physical, sexual or psychological suffering and moral or equity harm”. The
article also inaugurates the normative
discipline of the first receivers of the
law: the victim — always a woman — and the offender may be a man or
another
woman.

37. Until the advent of Law 11,340/06, the Law 9,099/95 was used, which
established the Special Criminal Courts (JECrim) to deal specifically
with
criminal offenses of lower offensive potential, and, by applying insufficient
penalties in the cases of violence against women
used to naturalize this kind of
violence, thus reinforced the gender hierarchy and the subsequent vulnerability
of women.

SPM/PR procedures for implementation of Maria da Penha Law

38. The following are the SPM/PR procedures for implementation of the Maria
da Penha Law.

39. The sensitization process of the Courts of Justice through filing
petitions to reinforce to all Brazilian Courts of Justice the
importance of the
new law and requesting the creation of Special Courts for Domestic and Family
Violence against Women is part of
implementation.

40. Another procedure was the realization of a videoconference at the Senate
on 19 September 2006, with the participation of law enforcement
officers,
delegates, public servants in the area of safety and civil society. The
videoconference was held throughout the day (with
an opening, roundtables and
debates) and resulted in better orientation and practical enforcement of the
law, given its entry into
force on September 22, 2006.

41. Further implementation was the realization of I Law 11,340/06 Task Force
- Maria da Penha Law, on 27 November 2006, in partnership
with the National
Justice Council (CNJ), with the participation of judges throughout the country,
which lasted one day with lectures
in the morning and a working group in the
afternoon. As result, the suggestions approved were referred to the CNJ and the
assumption
of commitment to promote the applicability of the Maria da Penha Law
in their respective institutions and regions, facilitating the
creation of an
Inter-Institutional Network of Eradication and Combating on Domestic and Family
Violence against Women. On this day,
a cooperation agreement was signed between
CNJ and SPM/PR to implement the Maria da Penha Law.

42. The SPM/PR published Announcement No. 01 on February 15, 2007, urging
NGOs and/or University Institutions organized in the form
of consortia to submit
proposals to establish the Observatory for Monitoring the Implementation and
Enforcement of the Law 11,340/06.
Three proposals were submitted and the Nucleus
for Interdisciplinary Studies on Women of the Federal University of Bahia
(NEIM/UFBA)
was the winner. To conduct this project, NEIM/UFBA formed a
consortium with eight solid academic institutions and NGOs recognized
in the
five regions of Brazil.

43. Owing to the Articulation between SPM/PR and CNJ on 7 March 2007, the
Recommendation No. 09 of the CNJ was published, which recommends
to the Courts
of Justice the establishment of Special Courts for Domestic and Family Violence
against Women and the adoption of other
measures under Law 11,340/06,
implementing public policies aimed at ensuring the women’s Human Rights
within the household
and family relations.

44. On 14 August 2007, the SPM/PR sent letters to the Domestic Violence
Courts already created, requesting data on procedures from
these Courts in
relation to the application of Maria da Penha Law. These data resulted in the
statistics published in the balance
of the SPM/PR procedures on 2006 and 2007.

45. On 17 August 2007, the SPM/PR launched the National Pact for Combating
Violence against Women, composed by four structural axes,
one being the
consolidation of the National Policy to Combat Violence against Women and the
implementation of the Maria da Penha
Law.

46. On 17 September 2007 in partnership with the Center for Women and Gender
of the Public Ministry for the Federal District and Territories,
the
“Seminar on domestic violence against women: proposals and challenges of
Maria da Penha Law for law enforcement officers”
was held.

47. On 10 March 2008, the SPM/PR held the Second Maria da Penha Law Task
Force, “Overcoming Violence against Women”, which
lasted one day,
with debates and roundtables to discuss the constitutional and social aspects of
the Law and present policies within
the Federal Government scope to combat the
violence against women and the practice of Maria da Penha Law. A new cooperation
agreement
was signed between the SPM/PR, the Ministry of Justice (MJ), through
the Secretariat of the Judicial Reform of the Ministry of Justice
(SRJ/MJ), the
CNJ and the National School of Development and Improvement of Magistrates
(ENFAM) to carry out multidisciplinary training
courses on the Maria da Penha
Law.

48. On 6 and 7 August 2007, the 1st National Meeting of Popular Female Legal
Advocates was held for the implementation of the Maria
da Penha Law. 300 Popular
Female Legal Advocates, representatives of the states and 24 NGOs met in
Brasilia. The Meeting resulted
in a letter of recommendation to the competent
authorities, among them the Minister of SPM/PR, the President of the STF and the
Vice-President
of the Republic.

49. On 28 August 2008, Avon and the United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM) launched the campaign “speak without
fear – say no to
domestic violence”. Developed in collaboration with the SPM/PR, it aimed
to sell the Attitude Bracelet;
the amount of R$1.5 million collected was donated
to UNIFEM.

50. On 5 and 6 November 2008, the SPM/PR, along with MJ through the SRJ/MJ,
the CNJ and ENFAM, held the National Training Course for
Multipliers on Domestic
Violence and the Maria da Penha Law. Its target audience was the newly sworn in
judges and practitioners
in the Courts of Domestic and Family Violence against
Women.

51. On 30 March 2009, the III Maria da Penha Law Task Force was held:
“Doing justice is to build peace”, lasting one day,
in which the
number of Courts and Tribunals of Domestic and Family Violence against Women
were shown; statistical data after the
enactment of Law 11,340/06; results of
the Federal Government policies and programs for the implementation of the Maria
da Penha
Law, besides the creation of the National Forum of Special Courts for
Domestic and Family Violence against Women (FONAVID).

52. The SPM/PR sent letters to the Secretariat of Legislative Affairs of the
Ministry of Justice in July 2009 asking for feedback
about the impacts of Bill
No. 156/2009, which amends the Criminal Procedure Code, as well as feedback on
the legislative proposals
of the House that amend the Maria da Penha Law.

53. On 6 August 2009, the Best Practices Award for the Application,
Dissemination and Implementation of the Maria da Penha Law was
launched
(Ordinance SPM/PR No. 063, August 6, 2009).

54. In late August 2009, SPM/PR supported the Women’s Delegation on
behalf of the Maria da Penha Law “Policy Incidence
for Maria da Penha
Law” with 25 representatives from various organizations, women’s
NGOs and SPM/PR itself. The delegation
held meetings with the Rapporteur of the
Declaratory Action of Constitutionality (ADECON) No. 19 in the Supreme Court,
the Deputy
Attorney-General of the Republic responsible for the defense of Maria
da Penha Law in the Repetitious Recourse over the Unconditioned
Lawsuit in
Superior Court, eight ministers from the 3rd Section of Superior Court and
senators responsible for the bill of the Code
of Criminal Procedure and a Public
Hearing in the House of Representatives with the female caucus. The meetings
aimed to raise the
awareness of the ministers from Superior Courts and
Parliamentarians to ensure constitutionality, absoluteness and integrality of
the Maria da Penha Law.

55. The first FONAVID Meeting occurred between 23 and 25 November 2009,
sponsored by SPM/PR with support from the Ministry of Justice
through the
SRJ/MJ, the CNJ, the Supreme Court through ENFAM and the Brazilian Magistrates
Association (AMB). The Cooperation Agreement
between SPM/PR and the above organs
was signed at the event’s opening to combine efforts to promote activities
within their
powers to give effect to FONAVID execution. The outcome was the
edition of 16 Statements and Motions, which will serve as guidance
for judges in
all Courts of Justice in the country to implement Maria da Penha Law.

56. Between 7 and 9 December 2009, SPM/PR supported, along with Ministry of
Justice through SRJ/MJ and the Public Ministry for the
Federal District, the
First National Meeting of the Public Ministry on Maria da Penha Law. The outcome
was the publication of guidelines
to Public Prosecutors of the entire Brazilian
Public Ministry in the implementation of Maria da Penha Law.

National Pact to Combat Violence against Women

57. The National Pact to Combat Violence against Women was built up aiming to
strengthen and enhance the National Policy on Combating
Violence against Women.
In line with the guidelines of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention,
Punishment and Eradication
of Violence against Women, the Pact’s general
goal is to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women based on an
integral vision of the problem.

58. Launched by the President of the Republic in August 2007 as part of the
Federal Government’s Social Agenda, the pact provides
for the execution of
different measures during four years (2008–2011) by different sectors and
actors committed to its proposal.
In the first year of its implementation, 2008,
the focus was on 11 states of the federation selected by criteria such as:
violence
against women data, size of the female population in the state and the
number of specialized services in assisting women in situation
of violence.
These states were: Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Distrito Federal,
Espírito Santo, Pará, Pernambuco,
Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de
Janeiro, São Paulo and Tocantins. Subsequently, the states of Minas
Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul
were incorporated into the federal units
prioritized, totaling 13 states prioritized in the first phase.

59. The Pact has the following objectives: (a) to reduce violence rates
against women; (b) to promote cultural change by spreading
egalitarian attitudes
and ethical values of unrestricted respect for the diversity of gender and peace
enhancement; (c) to ensure
and to protect women’s rights in situations of
violence, considering racial, generational, sexual orientation and disability
factors and social, economic and regional inclusion.

60. Its main goals are: to build, reform and equip the various support
services for women; training professionals in various areas;
to expand the 180
Women’s Call Center; to develop innovative projects in income generation,
education, culture and combating
violence against children and adolescents; to
realize national campaigns for prevention and combating violence against women;
to
implant the National Data and Statistics System on violence against women; to
implant the Observatory of the Maria da Penha Law;
to implant the Compulsory
Notification in all health services in the national territory; and the
assistance to women victims of human
trafficking.

The dimensions of the Pact to combat violence and measures taken

61. The concept of combating violence that guides the Pact’s measures
is comprised of three dimensions: combating, preventing
and assisting. The first
one relates to actions to establish and/or meet standards to ensure
accountability and punishment of abusers/perpetrators
of violence. The
preventive actions are those with educational and cultural content that
disseminate egalitarian values and ethical
attitudes, promoting gender and
race/ethnicity equity. Finally, the measures used to support women in situations
of violence fit
in with the assistance dimension.

62. Therefore, adherence to the Pact implies the promotion of intersectoral
actions, horizontally and vertically articulated in different
sectors
(ministries, departments, etc.) and government levels (federal, state and
municipal) around the four structural areas and
the three combating
dimensions.

The Pact implementation process and the adhesion of State and Municipal
Governments

63. The Pact is coordinated by SPM/PR together with the Federal Technical
Management and Monitoring Chamber of the Pact, composed
of representatives from
all federal bodies. States and municipalities are responsible for making the
actions viable in their territories.

64. Under the policy adopted by SPM/PR, the Pact’s implementation in
the states of the federation implies in the fulfillment
of four basic
requirements: (a) formal adhesion of the State Government through Federative
Agreement; (b) formulation of the Basic
Integral Project and coordination of
actions between Federal and State and/or Municipality Government; (c)
establishment of the Technical
Chamber responsible for managing the Pact in the
state and pole municipalities; and (d) network articulation of the services and
existing actions to care and to combat violence against women.

65. Although the Pact is a Federal Government policy, the SPM/PR is
responsible for promoting the adhesion of federal units, evaluating,
approving
and signing agreements in the three spheres of the federation. However, the role
of states and municipalities is essential
to guiding this process with autonomy
and management, ensuring its effectiveness in the spheres of its competence and
being responsible
for developing and articulating the actions foreseen by the
Pact in its territory, while respecting the different local realities.

66. The Federal Government is responsible for establishing guidelines and
standards to carry out the actions and funding them with
the state and municipal
counterparts. The state is responsible for monitoring and executing the actions
in cases that involve Justice
and Public Safety areas, and municipalities have
to implement actions in the areas of education, health and social
assistance.

67. The Women Policy-Making bodies are responsible for the coordination of
the Pact in the states articulated with the various sectors
and municipalities.
In the absence of such a body, the Council of Women may initially assume the
coordination and one of the first
Pact objectives will be the implementation of
a governmental policy-making body for women linked to the Executive.

68. Similarly to the federal organization, in each state part of the
agreement must be created a State Technical Chamber with representatives
from
state organs and civil society in order to ensure the implementation, management
and monitoring of the Pact within the state.
Similar structures should be
created in pole municipalities by gathering representatives of municipal bodies
and civil society to
monitor and to evaluate the implemented actions within the
municipality and regional articulations (see table 1.1 and graph 1.5 in
the
annexes available at the Secretariat).

Attribution of responsibility for the Pact between the federal
units

69. The Pact establishes responsibilities and spheres of activity for each
federative entity. So, it is responsibility of:

(a) The Special Secretariat of Policies for Women:

• To ensure the actions’ fulfillment and the achievement of the
objectives stated in the National Pact for Combating Violence
against Women

• To coordinate the implementation of the Pact actions together with
the various federal government bodies that are involved
in the National Pact

• To draw up the work plan, together with states, detailing the
Pact’s actions to be implemented and their implementation
schedule

• To monitor the Pact actions in the states along with Federal and
State Technical Management and Monitoring Chambers

(b) The federated state:

• To define together with SPM/PR the pole municipalities and micro
regions to implement the Pact’s actions.

• To articulate with the pole municipalities in order to ensure the
implementation of the actions established in the National
Pact for Combating
Violence against Women and agreed with SPM/PR.

• To ensure the accountability for the agreements signed by state
institutions to the SPM/PR and other ministries involved.

• To ensure the projects’ sustainability.

• To establish the State Technical Management and Monitoring Chamber of
the Pact with representatives from the three spheres
of government,
policy-making bodies for women, Councils of Women’s Rights, civil society,
universities, the Judiciary, Prosecutors
and Public Defender’s offices.
Its responsibilities will be, among others: to draft the work plan, detailing
the measures to
be implemented and its implementation schedule; to promote the
execution, monitoring and evaluation of the Pact’s actions in
the state;
as well as suggest the improvement and dissemination of such actions.

• To encourage the establishment of public consortia for combating
violence against women.

(c) The municipalities:

• To ensure accountability for the agreements signed by municipal
institutions to the SPM/PR and other ministries involved.

• To ensure the projects’ sustainability.

• To join the State Technical Management and Monitoring Chamber.

• To establish the Municipal State Technical Management and Monitoring
Chamber of the Pact with representatives of municipal
Executive bodies,
Municipal Council of Women and civil society. Its responsibilities will be,
among others: to draft the work plan,
detailing the measures to be implemented
and its implementation schedule; to promote the execution, monitoring and
evaluation of
the Pact’s actions in the municipality, as well as suggest
the improvement and dissemination of such actions.

• To promote the establishment and strengthening of the women’s
care network in situation of violence at municipal and/or
regional level through
public consortia (if applicable).

70. To achieve its objectives and goals, the Pact was organized into the
following four structural areas.

1. Implementation of Maria da Penha Law and strengthening of the
Specialized Care Services Network

71. Violence against women is a public health problem and a human rights
violation that affects thousands of women in Brazil and worldwide.
Such violence
is expressed in various ways (physical, psychological, sexual, moral and
patrimonial) and affects women regardless
of sexual orientation, income class,
race, ethnicity, religion, etc. This extremely important issue must be
incorporated into the
political agenda of states and municipalities through the
construction, expansion and consolidation of public policies. In this context,
the Pact becomes a key strategy, providing resources and promoting the
transversality of gender in various sectors of the Federal
Government, states
and municipalities.

72. Thus the Pact has the following goals: (a) strengthening the Care Network
for Women in a Situation of Violence by building, reforming
and refitting
Specialized Polices, Reference Centers, Public Defenders, Shelters and Special
Courts for Domestic and Family Violence
against Women; (b) incorporating the
Social Assistance Reference Centers (CRAS) and the Specialized Social Assistance
Reference Centers
(CREAS) in the Network; (c) training professionals and public
officials to take care of women in situation of violence.

73. These goals are also related to the implementation of Maria da Penha Law
(11,340/06), which requires coordinated actions between
all institutions
responsible and awareness by women and the population about their rights to be
achieved. For this reason, the Pact
supports measures of prevention, assistance
and combat of violence against women.

(a) Results

74. The Care Network for Women in Situations of Violence ended 2009 with 68
shelters, 146 reference centers, 56 nucleus of specialized
assistance of the
public defender’s office, 475 police stations or specialized posts of
women assistance, 147 specialized courts
or adapted jurisdictions of domestic
and family violence against women, 14 nuclei of state public ministries
specialized in violence
and 5 specialized prosecutors, 8 nuclei of combat to
human trafficking and 7 services of abuser accountability (see tables 1.7 to
1.14 of the annex).

75. Other gains achieved over the years refer to the understanding that the
network is not built only by specialized services, but
also as a gateway as, for
example, health services (clinics and hospitals), public safety (Institute of
Forensic Medicine and common
police stations), social assistance (Social
Assistance Reference Center – CRAS), among others.

76. The presence of 3,248 CRAS in 2,629 municipalities (in 2007) is also an
important achievement in terms of social support availability
for women. Among
the activities undertaken by CRAS, the Integral Family Care Program (PAIF)
stands out, which provides services to
families and individuals in situations of
social vulnerability, works to prevent recurring damage from stigmas,
discriminations and
violence situations experienced by women, as well as
provides opportunities to develop interests and talents, guiding them to
projects
of productive inclusion.

77. The actions of Special Social Protection (in which the CREAS are
inserted) have also shown that they are extremely important to
defending
women’s rights. The majority of the public supported are women and girls
who are victims of rights’ violations,
particularly family violence,
sexual abuse and exploration. The CREAS provides services that have listening,
speaking and dialogue
spaces to favor remedying the situation of violence
experienced – the users are guided to defend their rights within the
family,
community and society in general. In cases of family violence or abuse,
the intervention contributes to breaking the silence and
overcoming the patterns
of relationship violations. The Special Social Protection also has high
complexity services that offer assistance
to people who find themselves in a
situation of abandonment, threat or rights’ violations, requiring
temporary housing outside
of its origin family core, such as shelters for women
victims of violence and shelters and temporary housing for women with children.
There was a significant expansion in the number of municipalities with CREAS:
from 314 municipalities in early 2005 to 1,080 in the
end of 2007.

78. In order to ensure proper identification and referral in the gateway
services, and to provide qualified care in specialized services
(CREAS, for
example) and higher capillarity of the assistance to women in situation of
violence, a partnership was established between
SPM/PR, the Ministry of Social
Development and Fight against Hunger (MDS) and the Ministry of Justice (MJ) to
train CRAS and CREAS
professionals in all states. The training will occur during
2010 and will target 8,293 CRAS and CREAS servants of approximately 2,300
Brazilian municipalities. As the main qualification subjects, the concept of
gender and violence against women, care network for
women in situation of
violence, sexual and reproductive rights, trafficking in women, the Maria da
Penha Law, social and gender assistance,
feminization of AIDS, are worth
mentioning among others.

(b) Campaigns

79. The 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against the Women Campaign has
been held in the country for 17 years. Since 2003 the SPM/PR
supports it, from
2007, integrates it as an event promoter in partnership with the feminist NGO
Agende (Ações em Gênero
e Cidadania – Action on Gender
and Citizenship), the campaign coordinator. In the same way, the “Go along
well, Woman”
project has been developed that integrates the Caravan
“Go along well, Truck driver,” sponsored by Petrobras. The goal
is
to bring information about gender and combat of violence against women to truck
drivers throughout the country using traveling
campaigns.

80. The National Campaign for Combating Violence against Rural and Forest
Women was launched in 2008 with the slogan “Women
own their own life
– Living without violence is right of rural and forest women”.
Aiming to inform and prevent all rural
and forest women from domestic and family
violence, the Campaign had its coverage expanded in 2009 with 2,769 radio spots
insertions
on 803 stations throughout the country, in early morning and early
evening, to capture the rural and forest women audience, its target
audience.

81. The “Men United for the End of Violence against Women”
Campaign is an initiative led in Brazil by the SPM/PR. It began
in 2008 and
currently has a significant mark of about 54,000 signatures from men all over
the country, committed to the combat to
end violence against women. Having
obtained the adhesion of diverse sectors of Brazilian society under their
leaders’ commitment
to refuse violence against women, the campaign now
aims to significantly broaden the engagement of Brazilian men, the number of
partners
and supporters and, consequently, signatures. The violence against
women and girls will only be eradicated when men and society refuse
to tolerate
it.

82. On 24 November 2009, the Advertising Campaign for the 180 Call Center for
Women Assistance was launched nationwide. The campaign
had the slogan “A
life without violence is all women’s right”, together with the
advertising of the Call Center
number, 180. As a media strategy, radio spots,
videos, posters, brochures and pieces of urban furniture were developed. During
the
campaign period there was a significant increase in the number of calls to
the Call Center. To meet the demand raised by the campaign,
there was developed
a strategy to expand the 20 Points of Service available to 35. (See tables 1.3
to 1.5 and graphs 1.2 and 1.3
in the annexes.)

(c) Implementation of the Maria da Penha Law

83. In 2009, SPM/PR released the Best Practices Award for the Application,
Dissemination and Implementation of the Maria da Penha
Law, celebrating three
years of the law, to stimulate, to know and give visibility to the correct
application of the law. Individuals
or legal entities listed by third parties
whose work or actions on coping with domestic violence against women deserve
special emphasis
will be awarded.

84. Nominations for the award could be made via e-mail up to 8 March 2010 and
the winners will be announced in August 2010 during
the fourth anniversary of
the law. The award winners will receive a diploma and artwork, and the other
participants chosen will be
inserted in a publication with selected initiatives
to give them visibility throughout society.

85. The award categories are: Implementation of Programs and Policies;
Creation and Implementation of Services; Idealization or Campaigning;
Studies
and Researches, and Journalistic Articles.

2. Protection of sexual and reproductive rights and implementation of the
integrated plan to combat the feminization of AIDS

86. This axis of the National Pact to Combat Violence against Women seeks to
consolidate the policy of integral healthcare for women
through actions that
promote and protect their sexual and reproductive rights. Consolidating public
policies to reduce maternal and
neonatal mortality, promoting the humanized
attention to abortion, compulsory notification in cases of violence and
emergency contraception
while respecting the ethno-racial specificities and
sexual orientation and confronting the feminization of AIDS are the Pact’s
highlights.

87. The health system serves as one of the main gateways to women in
situations of violence (sexual, domestic and family), so its
joint activity with
the Network for Combating Violence against Women is fundamental.

88. The Pact aims to collaborate with the implementation of the Integrated
Plan to Combat the Feminization of AIDS and other Sexually
Transmitted Diseases.
Women and people living in poverty are more vulnerable to these infections.
Epidemiological studies show a
statistically significant relationship between
lack of condom use and variables indicating violence. Women exposed to domestic
and
sexual violence are among the most vulnerable. (Ruzany et al., 2003;
Taquette et al., 2003b).

89. So, to prevent and cope with the HIV/AIDS issue it is also necessary to
combat violence against women and promote equality between
women and men,
reducing their vulnerability to infection. The Pact incorporates these
perceptions and provides actions that contribute
to the effectiveness of these
prevention and combat measures, including: (a) expanding the supply of
reversible contraceptive methods
and emergency contraception, (b) implementation
of the Compulsory Notification in health services, (c) guarantee of legal
abortion,
(d) implementation of the Integrated Plan to Combat the Feminization
of the Epidemic of AIDS and other STDs, and (e) implementation
of standards,
guidelines and flows to support women in situation of sexual and domestic
violence.

(a) Results

90. On acquisition and distribution of contraceptive methods from 2006 to
2009:

• According to previous reports, since 2003 the Ministry of Health
invests in the acquisition and distribution of contraceptive
methods, serving a
population of women aged 10–49 years in almost all Brazilian
municipalities.

• In 2006, 5,242 municipalities were covered, attending 30,988,024
users through the distribution of contraceptives purchased
in 2005 at a cost of
R$27,572,499.20, including 18 million tablets of combined pill, 1.2 million
tablets of progesterone-only pill
(small pill); 502 thousand ampoules of monthly
injectable contraceptive; 250 thousand ampoules for quarterly injections; 191
thousand
tablets of the emergency contraceptive pill and 176,772 units of
TCu-380A IUD.

• In 2007, the number of users increased to 34,338,074, still totaling
5,242 municipalities served. In 2008, the number of municipalities
increased to
5,564 and the target audience reached 34,571,439 women.

• In 2009, the number of municipalities was 1,482 and the total number
of beneficiaries dropped to 30,216,909.

(b) To promote comprehensive health care for women, girls and adolescents
in situations of violence

91. In January 2007, 138 hospitals provided support to sexual violence
committed against women and adolescents; in October 2009, 481
hospitals and
other health units provided such services – with 60 performing the
abortion procedure for medical and legal reasons,
as a result of the
partnerships developed between 2007 and 2008.

92. In 2007, the country had 68 Interruption of Pregnancy Reference Services
provided by Law – a number reduced to 60 in late
2008. This fact is
directly related to political decisions of hospital managers and secretariats of
health or even to conscientious
objection of gynecologists who choose not to
attend to the women’s needs, often causing irreversible damage to their
mental
health. The Ministry of Health (MS) continues to invest in the
qualification and training of the National Integral Care Network of
Women’s Health.

93. The expansion of access and the number of services are visible in the
data below; it is noteworthy that there is a significant
increase in the number
of abortion procedures for medical and legal reasons. According to the Domestic
Violence, Sexual and/or Other
Violence Surveillance System (VIVA Continuo 2006
and 2007) 9,038 cases of violence were registered, of which 2,316 (25.6%)
occurred
among males and 6,722 (74.4%) among females. The highest rates of
reported cases were identified among children, adolescents and
young adults with
different distributions between genders. For males, the most affected age group
was 0–9 years old (33.6%)
followed by 10–19 years old (21.9%) and
20–29 years old (15.2%). Among females, the highest proportion of
occurrence
of violence was observed among 10–19 years old (27.7%) followed
by 20–29 years old (21%) and 0–9 years old (17.2%).
For
race/ethnicity, “whites” (branco) accounted for 40.5%,
followed by “browns” (pardo) (36.8%) and blacks
(negro) (10.3%), while “yellow” (amarelo) (1%) and
indigenous (indígena) (0.5%) corresponded to the lowest
proportions in the total number of victims. It was observed that 31.4% of
patients reported that
they attended 5th to 8th grades of basic education, 19.2%
had studied from 1st to the 4th grade of basic education and 15.2% had
studied
up to high school, complete or incomplete. The lowest proportions were observed
for individuals without schooling (6.6%)
and those who have completed higher
education (3.5%). As for marital status, 41% of victims reported being single
and 23.4% were
married or had in stable relationships. The presence of a
disability (physical, mental, visual, hearing and other disabilities/syndromes)
was recorded in 6.5% of all treatments, with similar distribution between
genders. By place of occurrence, acts of violence prevailed
in the household
(59.9%) and in public places (12.6%). Around 40% of all patients reported being
victims of repeated violence, in
other words, the violent event had already been
committed earlier. The occurrence of repeated violence ranged from 26.9% among
men
to 45.7% among women.

(c) Combating the feminization of AIDS

94. Launch of the Integrated Plan to Combat the Feminization of the Epidemic
of AIDS and other STDs (2007) by President of the Republic,
Luis Inácio
Lula da Silva, according to Article 12 of this Report. (See tables 1.15 to 1.22
in the annexes.)

3. Combating sexual exploitation and trafficking in women

95. The vast majority of victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking
are female (during childhood, adolescence and adulthood).
Despite being a
serious problem and a severe violation of fundamental human rights, the measures
to combat and to prevent it are
still insufficient. Therefore, the actions of
the Pact aim to implement the National Policy to Combat Human Trafficking,
encourage
the treatment of female victims in reference centers and support
innovative projects in the field of preventing and combating trafficking
in
women. The Pact seeks to build effective public policies with gender
perspective, considering the inequality between women and
men as a central
component of the issue. It is necessary to reduce the distances between the
various sectors and organizations involved
and to leverage existing services to
create specific measures.

96. Initiatives such as (a) the implementation of a pilot project to assist
victims of human trafficking, (b) the negotiation with
State Parties of the
MERCOSUR to install shelters for victims of human trafficking across borders,
and (c) the projects and bilateral
negotiations with Spain, Portugal and
Suriname are in progress to achieve these axis goals.

(a) Results

97. See Article 6 of this report.

4. Promoting human rights of women imprisoned

98. The last axis of the Pact lights up an issue almost invisible in our
society: the living conditions of women deprived of liberty.
Given their high
degree of vulnerability in prison, the discrimination against women acquires new
dimensions, worsening violations
of their human rights. The Pact aims to promote
actions to ensure the right of access to justice, health, and to protection of
the
sexual and reproductive rights of women imprisoned. The activities aims at
both the professionals who work directly with these women
through training and
adequacy of physical spaces as well as at the women imprisoned, guaranteeing
their access to health, justice,
culture, leisure, maternity, education and
income generation.

99. Among the actions planned under this Pact axis were the publication of
the report of the Interministerial Working Group of the
Women’s Prison
System (a partnership with the National Penitentiary Department – DEPEN/MJ
and the Special Secretariat
for Human Rights – SEDH/PR); national work
camps for Revision of Processes in women penal institutions; and a Booklet of
Rights
for women imprisoned.

100. It is noteworthy that the Pact is the result of joint efforts and
coordinated actions among several Federal Government measures,
seeking to
consolidate public policies to combat the violence against women in its
complexity; it is therefore guided by the National
Policy on Combating Violence
against Women, the Maria da Penha Law, international treaties on human rights,
the Integrated Plan to
Combat the Feminization of AIDS and other Sexually
Transmitted Diseases and the National Policy to Combat Human Trafficking among
other documents.

(a) Results

101. Realization of the seminar “Women Imprisoned: Diagnosis and
challenges in the implementation of integrated policies within
Mercosul”
(Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Mexico,
Paraguay and Uruguay).

103. Regarding Human Rights Education, several publications were produced,
highlighting: (a) Fundamentos Teórico-Metodológicos
da
Educação em Direitos Humanos (Theoretical Methodological
Fundamentals of Human Rights Education), a reference book
for researchers,
academics and educators in general, (b) Caderno Conselho Escolar e Direitos
Humanos, do Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento
dos Conselhos Escolares (School
Board and Human Rights Book of the National Program for Strengthening School
Boards), an important
area of participation and shared management of basic
education, (c) Caderno Conselhos de Educação e Direitos Humanos
(Education and Human Rights Boards Book), aimed at members of Municipal and
State Education Boards, state instances that have the
responsibility of
determining standards for their respective educational systems, (d) Cartilha
Direitos Humanos (Human Rights Primer),
produced by the artist Ziraldo with
language aimed at children and adolescents. Moreover, since 2009 the SEDH/PR has
the Human Rights
Magazine, an institutional space for qualified discussion of
public policies on Human Rights.

104. It is important to emphasize the continuous execution, since 1995, of
the Human Rights Prize, the main award of the Brazilian
Government on Human
Rights field, recognizing the experience of individuals and public and private
entities in the promotion, defense
and coping with human rights violations in
Brazil. The Human Rights Prize includes, among others, the Gender Equality
category.

105. In 2005, the General Coordination for Human Rights Education within the
structure of SEDH/PR was created to conduct Educational
policies in Human Rights
at the national level.

106. In 2007, the Federal Government’s Multiyear Plan (PPA) included
the creation of the National Program for Human Rights Education
with actions
focused on training Human Rights promoters, especially teachers of Basic
Education and Higher Education and People’s
Educators; the maintenance of
the Committees for Human Rights Education in states and municipalities; and the
creation of Nucleus
for Interdisciplinary Studies and Researches in Human Rights
Education at Universities.

LGBTTT

107. Fulfilling the commitment to include actions for specific groups to
combat discrimination based on gender issues, the SEDH/PR
has worked from 2004
to 2009 for the segment of lesbians, bisexual and transgender women by
developing activities such as following:

(a) Implementation of the “Brazil without Homophobia” Program
– 2004;

(b) 1st National LGBT Conference – 2008;

(c) National Plan for the Promotion of LGBT Citizenship and Human Rights
– 2009;

(d) Creation of the General Coordination for the Promotion of the Lesbians,
Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals Rights
in the SEDH/PR to promote
actions to reduce the stigma and prejudice against people in vulnerable
situations – 2009.

Civil registration of birth

108. In December 2007, the National Agenda for the Eradication of Civil
Sub-registration of Birth and Expansion of Access to Basic
Documentation was
launched aiming to ensure that all Brazilians have the right to a first and last
name, besides all documentation
needed for the full exercise of citizenship and
guarantee of human rights. At that time, it was realized that some of the
reasons
for not registering children were the difficulty to recognize paternity,
the large distances between notary’s offices and some
communities and the
lack of public information about the gratuity of such a document.

109. The agenda efforts were intensified in 2009, upon signature of the More
Northeast for Citizenship and More Legal Amazon for Citizenship
commitments.
Both were signed by the President of the Republic, along with governors of the
respective regions who made a commitment
to reducing regional inequalities in
Brazil, intensifying actions to reduce infant mortality, strengthening the
family agriculture,
reducing illiteracy and eradicating the sub-civil
registration of birth.

110. To eliminate the sub-civil registration of birth, measures organized in
three strategic priorities were planned: stopping the
number of children who
were born without registration by implementing units linking notary’s
offices to maternities; reducing
the number of people without civil registration
of birth through mobilization campaigns and task forces; and creating structural
conditions for maintenance of eradication of sub-civil registration of birth by
improving the system responsible for issuing birth
certificates.

111. In 2007, during the launch of the Social Agenda, the national index of
sub-civil registration of birth was 12.7%, which meant
that approximately
398,069 children were born unregistered at least in the first year of life. In
the latest statistics from civil
registration published by the Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2009, this index fell to 8.9%,
coming closer
to the level considered eradication, which is 5%.

112. For the first time the country reached the one decimal point level in
the index of sub-civil registration of birth, which reflects
the access
expansion to the civil registration of birth and, consequently, greater human
rights guarantees for the population. The
campaign slogan should be noticed,
which had great impact among the Brazilian population, mobilizing the organized
Civil Society,
public administrators, fathers and mothers: “Birth
Certificate. A right that gives rights. A duty for all Brazil.”

113. Accordingly, all states in the Northeast and Legal Amazon regions have
joined the Commitment and set up a State Management Committee
for monitoring the
agreed actions implementation. In 2009 227 task forces were made with the
issuance of 5,233 birth certificates
and 24,500 other documents (RG, CPF and
CTPS). Until the end of 2010 are planned more 1,225 task forces in all Northeast
states and
the Legal Amazon. In rural areas, with the partnership with the
National Women Rural Workers’ Documentation Program (PNDTR),
298,921
documents were already issued, with 138,276 women served by 549 task forces
(from January to October, 2009). In the Legal
Amazon area, in the Arco
Verde’s Task Force, 2,755 birth certificates, 8,088 RGs, 4,785 CPFs and
6,031 CTPS were issued (from
January to October, 2009).

114. Besides the task forces installation is foreseen of 1,108 units
interconnected to guarantee the issuance of birth certificates
at maternities
before hospital discharge – which will facilitate the paid maternity leave
for women, among other benefits.

115. The National Mobilization Campaign for Birth Certificate was also
launched, which sought to guide people about the importance
and means for
obtaining the birth certificate and basic civil documents. The campaign works
intermittently with the gender issue
when it suggests the equality between men
and women to report the birth, allowing women to register a child regardless of
paternity
recognition with a focus on all Brazilians family and citizenship
rights.

Article 6

116. By Decree No. 6,347/08 the Federal Government has approved the National
Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (PNETP), which implements
the National Policy
launched in October, 2006 through Decree No. 5,948/06. To prepare the Plan, an
Inter-ministerial Working Group
was installed in May 2007 under the coordination
of SPM/PR, SEDH/PR and MJ, which presented a proposition for a detailed action
plan
and monitoring activities. The Plan provides a set of actions for crime
prevention, repression of the aggressors and proper treatment
for the victims.
The drafting of the plan also had the participation of civil society
organizations and international organizations.
The Plan contains prevention
through campaigns, foresees updates in the current legislation related to human
trafficking and the
creation of State Centers to Combat Human Trafficking and
Advanced Outposts to receive persons in possible trafficking situations
in
Brazilian airports. The intention and commitment of the Federal Government
regarding the combat of human trafficking is to give
continuity to articulations
with federative entities, international and civil society organizations,
advertise the subject extensively,
training the actors involved directly or
indirectly with the fight against this crime and improve the instruments to
combat it, turning
it into a permanent and effective public policy, in other
words, a state policy which will last for different Governmental mandates.

117. The National Secretariat of Justice of the Ministry of Justice (SNJ/MJ)
implemented in 2008 and 2009 the Nucleus to Combat Human
Trafficking (NETP) in
the states of Acre, Goiás, Pará, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and
Sao Paulo and one Advanced Outpost
in Belém, state of Pará, to
decentralize actions and transfer resources to states to encourage actions. The
intention
is to turn the NETPs into permanent policies to be maintained by the
states. In December 2009, agreements were signed for the implementation
of new
Nuclei in the states of Bahia and Ceará, as well as the establishment of
new Advanced Outposts in Bahia and Rio de
Janeiro.

118. Another highlight was the cooperation agreement with the Brazilian
Company of Airport Infrastructure (INFRAERO), which will make
possible the
installation of Advanced Outposts as well as the expansion of preventive actions
in airports. A partnership was also
settled with SENASP/MJ, which will allow the
integration of the Protection and Women for Peace Projects with the Nuclei to
Combat
Human Trafficking, complying with a basic principle to reduce violence:
cooperation between agencies to implementation the actions.

119. The development of NETP and Advanced Outposts is an action under the
National Program for Public Security and Citizenship (PRONASCI),
an innovative
policy from the MJ, whose goal is “to prevent, to control and to suppress
crime, acting in its socio-cultural
roots by combining actions of public safety
with social policies through integration between the Union, States and
Municipalities,
delivering the guidelines of the Single Public Safety
System”. The program will develop policies to combat and to prevent
violence
in a strategic geographical area and age group according to specific
objectives.

120. In 2009 the SNJ/MJ created the Working Group (GT – Grupo de
Trabalho) on human trafficking and related crimes legislation.
This GT,
established by Instruction 194 of 12 February 2009, examined the Bill
2,375/2003, which amends the Decree-Law No. 2,848
of December 7, 1940 (The
Criminal Code); the Law 6,815 of August 19, 1980; and the Law 8,069 of 13 July
1990 (The Statute of the
Child and Adolescent) to criminalize human trafficking,
establish its penalties and other related rules; and Bill 2,845/2003, which
establishes standards for the organization and maintenance of specific public
policies to prevent and to combat human trafficking,
especially of women and
children, establishes the National System for Prevention and Combat of Human
Trafficking, and provides the
regulation of its civil and criminal aspects. The
GT finished its activities in September 2009, as well as the draft of the Final
Report, which presented the outcome of the discussions and proposed changes in
the actual Brazilian legislation.

121. The National Campaign to Combat Human Trafficking was launched in
February 2010 with the slogan “Human Trafficking. Help
Brazil avoid
falling into this trap”, aiming to prevent and inform the whole society
about the issue, especially women, highlighting
the rights of any citizen
traveling abroad and ways of preventing the crime. Since 4 January 2010, the
Campaign published advertisements
in the major magazines of the country to reach
women of different ages and socioeconomic conditions as well as opinion formers
to
disseminate the 180 Women’s Call Center.

122. The SNJ/MJ is creating a qualified database on human trafficking which
is computerized, integrated and updated. A single recording
channel is being
developed, the ETP Portal, which will allow for the monitoring and implementing
of prevention and combat actions
against human trafficking, as well as holding
its perpetrators accountable and taking care of the victims through the system
integrated
to the worldwide web.

123. With respect to migration, given its relationship with human
trafficking, Brazil respects immigrants, realizing, above all, that
they have
rights. Law No. 1,961 of 2 July 2009 evidences this by giving amnesty to illegal
immigrants, as well as the new foreigners’
bill about to be approved,
which will allow granting temporary residence visas to trafficked persons.
Partnerships already stand
out that were established with countries such as
Portugal and Belgium to cooperate on actions to combat human trafficking,
especially
to take care of victims. Along the same line, Brazil also has
partnerships with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
and the
International Labour Organization (ILO), which contributes to disseminating
knowledge about the subject.

124. The SPM/PR defined the following strategic areas for intervention on
this subject:

(a) Realizing a pilot project to structure an assistance network for women
victims of trafficking based on the Women’s Reference
Center for
Specialized Care experience in the Northeast;

(b) Training and expansion of the Women’s Care Network to combat the
trafficking in women. According to the PNETP report, by
2009 nearly 10,000
multiplier agents were trained;

(c) Supporting the creation of the Reference Centers for Women’s Care
in Situation of Violence on dry borders, and

(d) Training periodically the 180 Women’s Call Center operators for
appropriate care for women victims of trafficking. The
training workshops for
police officers to combat human trafficking for sexual exploitation are
noteworthy, which are carried out
in order to sensitize the police officers to
an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to the issue.

125. By understanding that Trafficking in women is a form of gender-based
violence against women, besides the execution of the PNETP
actions, the SPM/PR
also allocated an axis of the National Pact to Combat Violence against Women
specifically for trafficking with
emphasis on implementing actions to prevent
and take care of women in situations of human trafficking.

126. In 2009, besides the execution of the PNETP measures, the SPM/PR set up
strategies to develop partnerships in coping with trafficking
in women in dry
border areas. As part of the Specialized Women’s Conference of MERCOSUR
(REM), it inserted the agenda of combat
against trafficking in women with the
perspective of combating violence against women in general. The agenda has
acquired such importance
that a Regional Cooperation for the Protection of Women
in a Human Trafficking Situation project became a priority and will receive
support from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation
(AECID).

127. The REM proposals opened up space for parallel actions. In November
2009, the SPM/PR, along with the relevant women policy-making
bodies of Paraguay
and Argentina, signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a Tri-National
Care Centre for Women Victims
of Violence and Human Trafficking in Foz do
Iguaçu, a Brazilian municipality that borders both countries. This
Secretariat
aims to replicate the Foz do Iguaçu experience in other dry
borders which are human trafficking routes. Since the signing
of the National
Pact to Combat Violence against Women in the state of Roraima, also in November,
2009, the negotiations have begun
to implement a boundary service between Brazil
and Venezuela. The partnership was proposed to the Venezuelan authorities as a
memorandum
of understanding that is under discussion by the Frontier Development
Working Group between Brazil and Venezuela.

128. Besides these experiences, a document between Brazil and Spain is also
being proposed, which provides assistance to victims of
trafficking. The subject
was discussed during Minister Nilcéa Freire’s visit to Madrid in
April, 2009; in the second
semester, Spanish representatives of civil society
made a visit to see the Women’s Care Network of Bahia and a partnership
between NGOs of both of countries was established.

129. Regarding girls, adolescents and young women’s sexual
exploitation, the Second National Interdisciplinary Seminar on Violence
against
Adolescent/Young Women was held in August 2007, in Brasília. Promoted by
SPM/PR in partnership with MS and SEDH/PR,
the event discussed the different
possibilities of considering a generational section in the policies to combat
violence, particularly
in the case of sexual exploitation. SPM/PR has been a
partner of SEDH/PR since 2008 in implementing the Campaign: “Sexual
Exploitation
of Children is a Crime. Report it! Go to the Guardian Council in
your city or dial 100”. The SPM/PR priority for the next few
years will be
to enable professionals of health, social assistance, psychologists and child
protection agencies, among others, to
be trained multipliers capable of
combating the issue. Therefore, the SPM/PR launched during the seminar the
publication Adolescent/Young Women in Situation of Violence: Proposals of
Intervention for the Health Sector, useful self-learning modules as
a tool to
development such policies. The first training sessions were held in 2007 in
nine Brazilian states (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso, Espírito
Santo, Acre, Bahia, Pernambuco, Sergipe and Pará) and involved around 500
health professionals who evaluated the quality of
the proposed methodology and
the importance of the debate positively.

130. During the process to implement the Unique System of Social Assistance
(SUAS), one of the issues that stood out is the fact that
the Program to Combat
the Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents (Sentinela) had
been transformed into a continuous
service through the issuance of Decree No.
5,085/04. In 2005, the Federal Government proposed expanding the coverage of the
Social
Assistance Protection Service to Children and Adolescents Victims of
Violence, Abuse and Sexual Exploitation, emphasizing the municipalities
identified as priorities, and according to the sharing criteria under discussion
at the National Social Assistance Council (CNAS)
and reassessments of impact.
Such a reassessment process aimed at redesigning the service and the regulations
resulted from the SUAS
implementation to instigate the restoration and
strengthening of the family and community bonds. The number of children and
adolescents
attended by the program went from over 15,500 in 2005 to 65,900 in
2008.

131. On 25–28 November 2008, Brazil held the Third World Congress
against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, which
had as its main
objective to mobilize international efforts to guarantee the right to protection
of children and adolescents by:

(a) Analyzing the new challenges and dimensions of contemporary sexual
exploitation;

(b) Identifying advances and gaps in the legal references and accountability;

(c) Sharing implementation experiences of inter-sector policies to combat
sexual exploitation of children and adolescents;

(d) Defining strategies and objectives achievable through international
cooperation.

132. The event was a continuation of two previous congresses held in
Stockholm, Sweden (1996) and in Yokohama, Japan (2001), which
had an important
role in articulating the production of knowledge to combat the issue, thus
contributing to guide and to reflect
in a democratic and diverse way on the
different aspects related to the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents
around the
world.

133. The Third World Congress involved fourteen ministries from the Brazilian
Government, and was the largest event ever held in the
world about the issue,
overcoming its two previous editions in terms of participation and mobilization.
More than 4,300 people attended
the event, from which 3,515 were delegates,
besides representatives of 137 countries and 282 children and adolescents.

134. The National Program for Combating Sexual Violence against Children and
Adolescents of the National Sub-Secretary of Promotion
of the Rights of Children
and Adolescents of SEDH/PR participated in the drafting of the National Plan
against Human Trafficking
and is responsible for the established goals for the
target public, children and adolescents. In its work the following stand out:

(a) The inclusion of the category child and adolescent trafficking for sexual
exploitation in the 100 service, establishing a channel
for complaints against
cases of child and adolescent trafficking with direct access to bodies as the
Federal Police and Federal Highway
Police in order to refer and monitor the
complaints;

(b) The publication of a specialized methodology for attending children and
adolescents victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation;

(c) The support the “To Protect and Hold Accountable” study in
partnership with the National Committee, the Inter-sector
Commission, the ILO
and the Partners. The study analyzed the response of both the Public Safety and
Justice systems to the complaints
of sexual violence, the local care networks
and the cases of human trafficking in progress in the Brazilian Courts;

(d) The development of a Regional Strategy against Trafficking of Children
and Adolescents to Sexual Exploitation at border areas.
Brazil has started
intense international cooperation aiming at the protection of children and
adolescents’ rights at border
areas in partnership with authorities from
Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, focusing the combat on sexual exploitation of
children
and adolescents, which ended up in a process to define strategies
aiming to combat trafficking of children and adolescents at their
common
borders.

135. SEDH/PR and its partners every year coordinate the Carnival Campaign
against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents
– in 2010 its
motto was “The Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents is a crime.
Report it! Go to the Guardian
Council in your city or dial 100.”

136. The first edition of the campaign took place in 2006. After the
President of the Republic established the combat against sexual
exploitation of
children and adolescents as a priority, the Intersectoral Commission for
Combating Sexual Violence against Children
and Adolescents launched the first
yearly Carnival Campaign: “United against Sexual Exploitation of Children
and Adolescents
– Come Join Our Block Parade”. Launched in Recife
(PE), the campaign conquered significant space and acknowledgement
in the
national media measured by research and by the increase in the number of reports
directed to the National Emergency Number
of Complaints, 0800 99 0500 at that
time.

137. In 2007, the campaign was launched again and, just as in the previous
year, gained significant space in the national media by
publicizing the National
Emergency Number of Complaints, now 100. The national launch was in Salvador,
Bahia, with the presence of
President Lula. Coordinated by SEDH/PR and by the
Ministry of Tourism (MTur), it had support from the Ministry of Health, MEC, the
Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Labor and Employment and the Ministry of
Social Development.

138. During the campaign, posters, hand fans, car stickers, and flyers were
distributed (in Spanish and Portuguese at the Rio Grande
do Sul beaches to
mobilize and sensitize tourists from neighboring countries) and t-shirts were
distributed (to volunteers). Besides
this material, electronic panels (DNIT),
banners, TV and radio spots (30 seconds long) were produced and distributed to
all national
stations interested in supporting the campaign.

139. After consulting the Inter-sector Partners, it was decided to make a new
edition for the carnival Campaign of 2008 –”Sex
only if it’s
cool.” Instead of re-editing the two previous campaigns, it was decided to
create new art from the perspective
of the right to sexuality of children and
adolescents, but a healthy and protected sexuality. The culture of denial of
girls and
boys sexuality was broken to signal their sexual and reproductive
rights in a responsible manner. This right must be granted observing
the
peculiar condition of the developing person (Article 6 of the Statute of the
Child and Adolescent) and imposes a pro-active behavior
on the part of society
and of the State to guarantee it. Thus, combating sexual exploitation of
children and adolescents is also
a strategy for promoting and protecting Human
Rights.

Article 7

140. The Second National Conference of Women’s Policies (II CNPM) held
in August, 2007, had as one of its main subjects women’s
participation in
the spaces of power, meeting the recommendations of the Committee on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women after the analysis of
the last Brazilian report. This Conference recognized and validated a broad
concept of “spaces
of power”, whereby political participation has
various fronts, from the participation in civil society organizations, passing
through political parties, to the occupation of elective positions and mandates
in the State, especially in the Legislative and Executive
Powers of federal,
state, district or municipalities instances. The Conference also pointed out
priority guidelines for the government
actions, both in the Legislative and
political parties’ level and in the Executive and Judiciary. As a
consequence, a new axis
was included into the Second National Plan for
Women’s Policies (II PNPM). Thus, the Chapter 5 of the II PNPM,
“Women’s
participation in the spaces of power and
decision-making” aims a broader women’s participation in
Parliaments, political
parties and its instances of power and decision-making,
as well as inserting the equality between men and women subject in the political
reform debate.

141. Nowadays, the women’s presence is encountered more expressively in
organizations and associations, being lower in political
parties and even lower
in the parliament and government. Some variables can explain such
under-representation: the persistence of
a patriarchal culture, which associates
men with the public spaces and women to private ones; the weight of economic
power in the
elections and the increasing cost of campaigns, favoring male
candidates; the little time dedicated by women to political actions,
in great
part motivated by the overload of responsibilities, domestic tasks and care with
children and sick, elderly or disabled
relatives, besides the time dedicated to
professional life; and less consolidated political trajectories of women
compared to men.

142. The most adverse front for women’s participation, is that of
political representation at the State level (governors and
parliamentarians).
One observes that the under-representation is aggravated by racism and
prejudices of all kinds. Thus, black, indigenous,
young, lesbian, disabled,
rural, domestic and poor women are even less present in the spaces of power.

143. The women’s participation in the power instances of the country
has been increasing gradually, although still very timidly.
(See Table 2.1 in
the Annex.)

144. Similarly, women’s presence in the Parliament, although smaller,
has increased all over the world. Brazil was one of the
first countries to
guarantee public rights to women, but nowadays integrates the group of countries
with intermediate/bad performance
related to the women’s presence in the
Parliament: 9% in the Chamber of Deputies and 12.3% in the Federal Senate.
According
to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization that
monitors parliamentary democracy, the country was in the 107th
position among
187 countries on 31 October 2009, below the American average of 22.6% for
Chamber and 20.2% for Senate. Most Latin
American countries are ahead of Brazil,
especially Argentina, Costa Rica and Ecuador, which are among the top 20.

145. To debate the participation of Brazilian women, their limitations and
challenges in political party representation, in May 2007
SPM/PR held the first
meeting with female national representatives from political parties, discussing
the need for enabling women
to dispute space in the parties and elections. As
result the participants suggested the creation of the National Forum of Women of
Political Parties with the support of SPM/PR, aiming to monitor the advance of
women in political parties; to collaborate with the
women’s political
education; to interfere in the Electoral Reform discussions and in the electoral
legal framework; to articulate
the insertion of women’s demands in the
electoral platforms; to promote actions that stimulate women’s
participation
in elections: and to effectively participate in the combat against
prejudice towards women. The National Forum of Women of Political
Parties meets
periodically and has representatives from 14 parties among the 27 in the country
which already have some kind of internal
organization of women.

146. Supported by the SPM/PR, the Forum has been drafting and distributing
platforms with political action proposals addressing women
to the various female
candidates for elective positions. So the More Women in Power Platform was
elaborated for the 2008 Municipal
Election, which lists policies to be
incorporated in the platforms of the candidates identified with the combat
against racism and
gender discrimination and with the equality principles and
respect to diversity, fairness, State secularism, social justice and
transparency
of public actions. The document was elaborated by the National
Forum of Women of Political Parties with the support of SPM/PR and
the National
Council of Women’s Rights (CNDM). A new version of the More Women in Power
Platform is being prepared for the
2010 elections.

147. A measure of the progress by the forum together with SPM/PR is the
elaboration of didactic material on political education for
women’s in
political parties in order to stimulate women’s participation in political
parties and elections, contributing
to a higher number of women candidates in
elections. The realization of Regional Seminars in 10 states of Brazil is also
foreseen
to mobilize women of political parties in state and municipalities to
form Regional Forums of Women of Political Parties.

148. In June 2007, CNDM and the female caucus of the National Congress
supported by SPM/PR, promoted a public manifestation in front
of the National
Congress to draw attention to the consistent absenteeism of women in the spaces
of power and to encourage a political
reform also from a gender point of view.
With the motto “No less, no more: just equal”, women showed their
concerns about
the directions of the political reform in the country and
demanded higher participation in the Brazilian parliament.

149. During the protest, an open letter signed by CNDM, by the female caucus
of the National Congress and by the Forum was distributed
to the
parliamentarians with demands such as the pre-arranged list with gender
rotation, 30% of electioneering time on radio and
TV for women candidates and
30% of the Party Fund resources for organizations of women of political
parties.

150. Many of the actions and recommendations approved in the municipalities
and states conferences during the preparatory process
of the II CNPM reinforce
the need for changes in the values and principles that are at the basis of the
gender relations and the
evaluation of women’s conditions by society in
general. In other words, these initiatives target the cultural formation of
the
society itself related to the consecrated representations of men and women and
the spaces occupied by them. That way, the work
aims to create procedures and
mechanisms that stimulate new perceptions and attitudes, deconstructing myths
and prejudices that feed
inequalities even in family and private spaces, in
which the power relations between genders start to be engendered.

151. To debate the underrepresentation of women in politics, the political
reform and the women’s presence in the spaces of
power and
decision-making, the SPM/PR and the CNDM held the seminar “More Women in
Power: a Matter of Democracy” with
the support of the female caucus in the
National Congress and of the Forum as part of the celebrations of 8 March 2009.
The seminar
was attended by representatives from various spheres of power, from
civil society, political parties and researchers of the subject.

152. Besides this, the campaign “More Women in Power: I am committed to
it!” was launched, the goal of which was to promote
changes in power
structures and institutions, as well as in culture and mentality, that engender
new social relations between men
and women. During the campaign the website www.maismulheresnopoderbrasil.com.br
was created to spread news, statistics, texts, articles and studies about
women’s participation in politics and in spaces of
power and decision,
involving not only their presence in the three branches of government, but also
in state-owned and private enterprises,
political parties and civil society
movements and organizations.

153. On the occasion of the seminar, it was announced that SPM/PR would
establish a Tripartite Committee to discuss, to draft and
to refer a review
proposal for Law No. 9,504 of 30 September 1997, which establishes rules for the
elections considering the proportion
of black and indigenous women in the
population. This committee, created by the Instruction No. 15 of 11 March 2009,
started its
work on 14 June 2009. It was coordinated by SPM/PR and composed by
representatives of Executive, Legislative and civil society organizations.
To
draft the proposal, the Tripartite Committee held eight ordinary meetings and
three public hearings. In the first public hearing,
researchers who study the
political participation on gender perspective were consulted. In the second,
representatives of political
parties were heard to reveal their views about the
agenda of the reform. In the last one, the Superior Electoral Court was
consulted
to discuss the Tripartite Committee proposal and the implementation of
the Law No. 12,034 passed on 29 September 2009.

154. Concomitantly to the Tripartite Committee, the Chamber of Deputies
created a Work Group to draft a bill that would change the
Political Parties Law
and Electoral Law. This work group was composed by party leaders and had the
participation of three female
deputies that represented the Federal Chamber in
the Tripartite Committee. The Tripartite Committee considered it was essential,
along with the draft of its proposal for reviewing the Electoral Law, to
intervene in the debates taking place in the National Congress
in order to
include in the proposal measures that would ensure women’s broader
participation in politics.

155. The SPM/PR was present throughout the discussion process about the
political reform. which the protagonism of the Tripartite
Committee was
relevant, by guiding the subject of a broader women’s participation in
politics in the political reform agenda,
and strengthening the acts of the
female caucus and the feminist movement organizations in an articulated action
to include the subject
as one of the issues for debate and deliberation. As a
result, Law No. 12,034/2009 for broadening the women participation in politics
brought the following changes.

156. The third paragraph of the article 10 of Law No. 9,504/1997 now has the
following wording: “From the number of vacancies
resulting from the rules
foreseen in this article, each party or colligation will fulfill the minimum of
30% (thirty percent) and
the maximum of 70% for each gender on its list of
candidates”. In the previous version, the word used was “will
reserve”.
With the change, the parties have to maintain the
proportionality of at least 30% and maximum 70% for each gender in their list of
candidates.

157. Item V and paragraph 5 were included into Article 44 of Law No.
9,096/1995, which regulates the application of the Party Fund
resources:

“V. In the creation and maintenance of programs to promote and to
increase women’s political participation according to
the percentage to be
set by the national party management body, the minimum of 5% (five percent) of
the total shall be observed.”
(NR)

“§ 5º- The party that does not fulfill the disposed in the
item V of the caput of this article shall designate the
percentage of 2.5% of
the Party Fund towards it in the next year, and is prevented from using it for
other activities.”

158. Article 45 of Law No. 9,096/1995, which deals with free electioneering,
was added with the item IV:

“IV – To promote and to publicize the women’s political
participation, dedicating to women the time to be set by
the national party
management body, which shall observe the minimum of 10% (ten
percent).”

159. On 17 December 2009, the Final Report of the Tripartite Committee was
presented the in SPM/PR auditorium in Brasília.
The Committee then
concluded its work by presenting a Draft Bill including proposals to reform the
Brazilian political and electoral
systems, changing Law No. 4,737 of 15 July
1965, Law No. 9,096 of 19 September 1995, and Law No. 9,504 of 30 September
1997, to increase
political participation.

160. The proposal is divided into four chapters that deal with
“Federations”, “Public Financing”, “Pre-arranged
Lists” and “Electoral Colligations”. Among the suggested
proposals in the Draft Bill are the adoption of pre-arranged
lists with gender
rotation, the public financing of the campaigns, the destination of 30% of the
Party Fund resources to create and
maintain the programs to promote and to
extend the women’s political participation, the resources management by
the women’s
instances in political parties and the utilization of 50% of
electioneering time to promote and to extend women’s political
participation.

161. It is also important to highlight the holding of the First National
Seminar of Black Women’s Empowerment and Political
Engagement in August,
2009, promoted by SEPPIR/PR along with the Subsecretariat of Affirmative Action
Policies (SUBPAA/SEPPIR). The
seminar aimed to attune positions, to cross data,
to evaluate practices, to develop theories and to find the reasons why, despite
the incontestable advances, the equitable coexistence among citizens with
different skin pigmentation does not occur.

162. Thus, the instigation for Black women to participate in political
parties, besides meeting the guidelines of these Plans, aims
to boost and
democratize the internal relationships of the political parties, to insert and
strengthen the debate and the growth
of the party from gender and ethnic-racial
perspectives also. This action is based on the understanding that it is
essential to reveal
new female political party protagonists and to promote the
insertion of black women, either in the management instances and/or as
representatives in the Legislative and/or Executive powers.

163. For this purpose, the SEPPIR/PR, the SPM/PR and the United Nation
Development Programme (UNDP) have united to construct this
Project in the first
instance. In 2010 the publication of a guide for black women’s political
participation and the realization
of the Second National Seminar of Black
Women’s Empowerment were proposed to continue the works.

164. In the Judiciary Power, the lower representation of women in the spaces
of power and decision-making shows the social roles experienced
by women and men
in a patriarchal culture with the “masculinization of the command and
feminization of subalternity”.
At the entrance level of the career, when
the entry is made through public contests, the number of women is significant, a
fact inverted
in the superior instances and in those positions conceded by
indication. The election of Minister Carmen Lúcia Antunes Rocha
for the
Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) in 2009 increased the percentage of women in the
supreme courts in the country from 14.45%
to 16.7%.

165. The current composition reveals 14 women and 76 men as ministers.
Despite this advance, the distribution between women and men
in superior courts
shows how the women’s ascension to higher hierarchical positions is
difficult in the three powers. In the
legal area, when analyzing the
representation of female attorneys, women already make up 45.9% of all
attorneys. Women represent
34.4% of the class of magistrates; in the National
Justice Councils, women represent 19.45%; and in superior courts, 17.56%.

166. Regarding organized society, the feminist and women’s movements
stand out due to their broad diversity: Black, indigenous,
lesbian, rural and
domestic workers, housewives, and mothers’ associations among others.
These groups are supported by identities
that surpass the gender reference by
their convergence with social condition, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and
others. Other
women’s participation spaces are the environmentalist,
black, human rights, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (travesties
and
transsexuals), handicapped, elderly, child, adolescent and youth movements.

167. Women also have great involvement in larger and wide-ranging
institutions and movements such as neighborhood associations, professional
associations, unions, universities and political parties, as mentioned before.
In these institutions, women commonly get together,
constituting spaces that
assume the form of coordinations, departments and nuclei to develop studies and
to present proposals about
women’s issues and gender relations to
respective institutions, the State and society as a whole. The nuclei of study
and research
about women and gender at public and private universities of the
country have been inserting the subject in the production of knowledge
and new
technologies.

168. Since their creation, in 1985, the Women’s Rights Councils —
facultative in each state and municipal administration
— have been a
rallying point of the women’s movements. Nowadays, there are 23 state
councils and 183 municipal councils.

169. The next achievement was the government mechanisms with power of
execution, larger political articulation of women’s policies
and better
conditions of public intervention with their own budgets and structure, as the
Women’s Secretariats and Coordinations
or Nuclei of women’s
Policies. There are 17 state executive bodies and 162 municipal ones in the
country nowadays.

170. Besides these mechanisms, the National Conferences stand out, which
provide subsidies for the elaboration of their corresponding
National Plans. The
National Conferences are held by the government regularly, being preceded by the
municipal and state conferences.
Their implementation is a privileged process of
mobilization for debate, elaboration of synthesis and establishment of
agreements,
consensus and commitments. The implementation and results of the
First National Women’s Policies Plan (I PNPM) were assessed
in August,
2007 at the II CNPM. Besides the assessment and review of I PNPM, the delegates
also discussed the issue of women’s
participation in the spaces of power.
As a result, a new axis was included into the II PNPM that represents actions
specifically
directed to the women’s political participation and
representation.

Article 8

171. Since the creation of SPM/PR, in 2003, Brazil has been present in all
international meetings which defend women’s rights
and which are
associated with the promotion of gender equality. This intense international
participation has been widely favored
by the close cooperation established with
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE).

172. The goals of Brazil’s foreign operations consist of responding to
global initiatives for the inclusion of gender issues
in public policies and for
the implementation of the commitments to promote women’s human rights
assumed by the Federal Government
with international organizations. Brazil has
been defending a number of policies, including women’s sexual and
reproductive
rights as a strategy to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, an inclusive
and non-sexist education, the combat to women’s vulnerabilities
in poor
and developing Countries, and the assurance of women’s access to justice
and public power spaces.

173. In this process, Brazil has acted in various international instances.
The Country presented to the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) in 2003 its first National Report on policies developed
for the implementation, in the Country,
of the Convention for the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which resulted in a widely
distributed publication,
also available at SPM/PR website. In August 2004, the
Country elected Dr. Silvia Pimentel, Ph.D., a renowned jurist and feminist,
for
the position of expert of the CEDAW Committee, an instance which Brazil had been
participating until then with Dr. Ruth Escobar,
Ph.D., elected in 1985. Dr.
Silvia Pimentel, whose election in 2004 showed the effectiveness of coordination
between the Brazilian
Government and women’s and human rights social
movements, was re-elected in 2008.

174. At the Organization of American States (OAS) in October 2004, Minister
Nilcéa Freire, of the Special Secretariat of Women’s
Policies,
became the first Brazilian woman to be elected as the President of the
Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) with a
significant vote of 26 in favor
and 7 against. The Minister, who held the post until 2006, deployed the
Follow-Up Mechanism of the
Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI),
under which the signatory Countries have committed themselves to regularly
report
the policies implemented to prevent, punish and eradicate the violence
against women.

175. Regarding the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC), the Sub-Regional Meeting for South America was
held in March 2004 in
Brasilia, preparatory for the IX Regional Conference on Women in Latin America
and the Caribbean. In 2007 Brazil
was engaged in negotiations of the X Regional
Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which led to the
“Quito
Consensus” – a document that urges regional States to
take the necessary measures to ensure gender parity in public positions,
as well
as to eliminate discriminatory employment practices. Continuing this effort, in
July 2010, Brazil intends to host the XI
ECLAC Regional Conference on Women in
Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in Brasilia. ECLAC’s support
to the realization
of the conference in Brasilia indicates the recognition of
the role that Brazil has been exercising in the region in women’s
rights
promotion.

176. Finally, at the 5th World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, in 2005,
Brazil endorsed the declaration by the reaffirmation of
commitments to the
development of equality between women and men signed by Minister Nicole
Améline of the Parity and Professional
Equality of France, and by
Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize.

177. Besides having sought to strengthen the existing international instances
for dealing with the women’s issue, Brazil has
stimulated the creation of
specific forums, such as REM, chaired by Brazil in 2004 and 2008, the
Women’s Forum at IBAS –
India, Brazil and South Africa Dialog Forum,
and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which also holds
special
meetings on the gender issue. Participation in these different spaces
has enabled a more positive national agenda regarding the women’s
interests.

178. The most direct women’s role in the international scene is a
diplomatic career. In Brazil, the entry of women in the Foreign
Ministry was
legally established with the approval of Law 2,171 on 18 January 1954, whose
first article stipulates that native Brazilians
may enter careers “without
distinction of sex”. Nevertheless, the advance took place primarily
through the courts, when
the Supreme Federal Court ruled in favor of Maria
Sandra Cordeiro de Mello by judging in her favor a writ of mandamus for her to
enroll in the public competitive examination of 1952.

179. In recent decades, the proportion of women in diplomatic careers has
remained stable around 20%, with small increase in recent
years. The stability
of this percentage is undoubtedly problematic since the condition of Brazilian
women has improved in various
areas, especially regarding to higher education,
which has not been reflected by an increase of the number of women in the
diplomatic
career. The absence of a specific policy aimed at increasing the
female contingent in the Brazilian diplomatic service might explain
this
trend.

180. However, once in the career, women are gaining space. Back in 2003, it
was possible to see that most of the Brazilian female
diplomats reached only an
intermediate level, usually Counselor, being successively overtaken by their
male colleagues in the categories
of Minister and Ambassador. Women numbered
only 6.1% of the total Brazilian Ambassadors. Currently there are 21 women
performing
this function from a total of 177, which corresponds to 11.86% of
diplomats in this category – less than the average percentage
of women in
the career, currently at 21.1%. (See Table 3.1 in the Annex.)

181. It should be noted that the Brazilian State also has Ambassadors in
positions of command, such as the Permanent Mission of Brazil
to the United
Nations New York and the Permanent Delegation in Geneva.

182. Despite this improvement regarding the rise of women in diplomatic
service, the largest number of women are in the Third Secretariat
class, the
first level of the career. There are currently 66 Third Secretaries of a total
of 287 diplomats in this category, which
is largely explained by the increasing
number of staff promoted by the Brazilian government since 2006. (See Table 3.1
in the Annex.)

183. The high percentage of women at the Special Framework also stands out,
which means that the tendency to end the career in intermediate
classes, whether
as the First Secretary, whether as the Counselor, remains in force.

184. Under the affirmative policy adopted by MRE for the access to diplomatic
career by African descents, although this has not the
purpose of a specific
policy, the entry of black women in the career has also been observed. From 2003
to 2008, four women of African
descent entered the diplomatic career thanks to
such a policy.

185. The careers of Diplomat, Chancellery Official and Chancellery Assistant
compose the Brazilian Foreign Service. (See Table 3.2
in the Annex.) From these,
the greatest in responsibility, prestige and remuneration is the diplomatic
career. In the other two careers,
subordinated even to the lowest ranking
diplomats, women are the majority, by contrast.

Article 9

186. As informed in the previous report, the Brazilian legislation equally
protects its men and women, and provides equal treatment
to migrants of both
genders. Brazil has been signing and ratifying all international Conventions and
Treaties dealing with the protection
of nationality in general, as well as those
dealing with the protection of women’s nationality.

Article 10

187. In recent years, educational indicators have recorded that in Brazil,
women have surpassed men. The average years of schooling
is a good example. In
2008, women over 15 years old had an average schooling of 7.6 years compared to
7.3 years among men. The same
situation is observed in all regions of the
Country. Among the employed population in urban areas, the difference between
men and
women widens: while men had, in 2008, an average schooling of 8.3 years,
women had 9.2 years, surpassing the level of basic education
(whose duration was
extended, from 2006 on, to nine years). This means that women tend to qualify
themselves more to enter the job
market, which does not revert into higher wages
or skilled occupations higher than those of men, nor does it mean the release
from
domestic and home care responsibilities. (See Figure 2.1 in the Annex.)

188. Also in 2008, one considered the population above 10 years old who
studied for seven years or less, in other words, the incomplete
basic level, 53%
were men and 47% were women. In the opposite segment, of those who studied 12
years or more, in other words, reached
higher education, 57% were women and 43%
were men.

189. The reality is different among women over 60 years old, since illiteracy
is still prevalent at this age. Elderly men, in turn,
have a higher average of
years of schooling than women (4.3 against 3.9) and lower illiteracy rates. Such
observation is an expression
of a past in which the public space was not
permeable to the presence of women in a condition of worker or as a citizen,
being left
for them only the responsibilities for domestic private work. Women
therefore had no access to education or had it at rates significantly
lower than
men.

190. Except this age group, Brazilian women are more educated than men and
also have lower illiteracy rates. In 2008, 9.8% of women
aged 15 or over were
illiterate and 20.5% were considered functionally illiterate. Among men, these
percentages were 10.2% and 21.6%
respectively. This framework tends to be
reversed, however, when observing the Southeast and South Regions, where
women’s illiteracy
rates were higher than men by about one percentage
point. Surprisingly, in the regions considered less developed, women have higher
literacy levels than men. The female advantage is greater in the Northeast
region, where 16.1% of women over 15 years old were illiterate
compared to 19.3%
of men of the same age. (See Figure 2.2 in the Annex.) Such phenomenon may be
related to higher migration of men
with higher education from the less developed
regions to the more developed ones.

191. The discrepancy and school dropout statistics are also less frequent
among women, making the age-grade distortion smaller for
women than for men.
Thus, while 44% of boys from 15 to 17 years old attended the educational level
appropriate for their age (high
school), this proportion was much higher among
girls (56.8%). Values and gender conventions contribute to confirm this
scenario,
ultimately encouraging more boys to abandon their studies to work and
help the support their families, while girls are destined to
domestic work,
which theoretically can be more easily reconciled with school activities.

192. Evidently, the challenges are still huge. Despite the progress achieved
the fundamental demands for gender equity in education
remain: awareness of
federal, state and municipal managers, nationwide training of education
professionals, promotion of a curriculum
change that includes the gender issue
transversally in the curricula of basic and higher education, and the consequent
development
of various teaching materials and guides for teachers to practice in
the classroom. Given the overall parity in enrollment by gender,
with a slight
superiority for women in secondary and higher education, affirmative measures
are confined to groups such as indigenous,
rural population, browns, African
descents, the disabled, among others.

193. Important steps have been taken in all these fields in recent years. Two
visible processes in recent years illustrate the consolidation
of the gender and
sexual orientation issue in federal education policies. First, there was a
considerable expansion in the scale
of training processes for education
professionals on these and on other issues, which accompanies the yearly
increase of their budget.
Secondly, but not least, intersector policies by
gender involving MEC, SPM/PR, SEDH/PR, and MS, among others, have also been
consolidated
and expanded since their creation, from 2004 on. The results of
some of these projects are detailed below.

194. Based on the evaluation that it is necessary to strengthen the national
consensus about the importance of gender, race and sexual
orientation issues in
education, the politics have focused on training educators and other
professionals related to education in
relation on the subject, besides
developing teaching materials that support the classroom actions.

195. For the transversal treatment of gender relations, ethnicity, race and
sexual orientation issues, the Gender and Diversity in
the School Course
developed by SPM/PR, MEC and SEPPIR/PR, stands out among these processes to
train educators. The pilot project
in 2005/6 had the partnership of the British
Council and the Latin American Center for Sexuality and Human Rights at the
State University
of Rio de Janeiro (CLAM/UERJ). Between 2006 and 2009, MEC spent
approximately R$5.5 million on the project. The course is delivered
through
e-learning with three face-to-face meetings, and can be offered as an extension
and specialization with minimum workload
of 200 hours for extension and 380
hours for specialization. In its pilot phase, in 2006, public elementary schools
professionals
were trained in six Brazilian municipalities (Nova Iguaçu
and Niterói – RJ, Salvador – BA; Porto Velho
– RO;
Dourados – MS, and Maringá – PR) through an e-learning which
transversely addressed the gender, race,
ethnicity and sexual orientation
issues. Since 2008, the course is offered through the Open University of Brazil
(UAB), a program
linked to the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher
Education Personnel (CAPES), a MEC autarchy, through the Education Network
for
Diversity, which includes several courses of the Secretariat of Continuing
Education, Literacy and Diversity (SECAD/MEC), and
through partnerships with
public higher education institutions (universities and federal institutes) in
several states of the federation.

196. UAB has prioritized the training of Basic Education professionals. To
achieve this main goal, it holds ample cooperation between
Brazilian public
higher education institutions, states and municipalities. Through the e-learning
methodology with face-to-face meetings,
it promotes the access to higher
education for population groups that are excluded from the educational process,
as a result of the
policies to expand and to internalize the courses offered and
the higher education programs through partnerships between the federal,
state
and local spheres.

197. In the 2008 edition, 18 federal and state higher education institutions
offered 13,340 vacancies. In the 2009 edition, eight
other higher education
institutions also offered 6,660 vacancies. For 2010, other higher education
institutions will be selected
with new funds for the institutions that offered
the course in 2008 and 2009 to offer new vacancies.

198. Still in the professional training field, for 2010 a new partnership to
train public policy managers was made. In partnership
with SEPPIR/PR, SECAD/MEC,
UNIFEM, the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and CLAM/UERJ, UAB
will provide by public announcement
the Management of Public Policies for Gender
and Race Course, also through the Education Network for Diversity, aiming to
train professionals
able to act in the elaboration, implementation, monitoring
and evaluation of projects and actions, ensuring the transversality and
intersectionality of gender and race in public policies. The course is aimed at
education, gender, race, health, labor, safety and
planning managers, as well as
federal, state and municipal public servants, members of the Women’s
Rights Councils, Intergovernmental
Forums for the Promotion of Racial Equality,
Education Councils, and leaders of nongovernmental organizations related to
gender issues
and ethnic and racial equality.

199. Besides the e-learning courses, since 2005 MEC also develops projects to
be held together with the systems and training courses
for education
professionals in class, and for the preparation, production and distribution of
teaching materials on gender issues
and sexual diversity. In 2005/2006, through
Public Announcement, 31 institutions were selected between IESs, NGOs and City
Halls
for training approximately 2,500 education professionals and preparing
teaching materials, with a cost of R$1.25 million. In 2007,
through the CD/FNDE
Resolution No. 66/2007, 12 IESs were selected to train approximately 2,300
education professionals and developing
teaching materials, with a cost around
R$1.5 million. In 2009, through the CD/FNDE Resolution No. 16/2009 and the
Public Announcement
No. 15/2009, 13 IESs were selected to train approximately
6,600 education professionals and to prepare teaching materials, with a
cost
around R$4.5 million. These education professionals will develop intervention
projects by the end of the course to be applied
in the education systems of
which they are a part.

200. The training processes of educators in Human Rights and those related to
other diversity issues include the treatment of gender
issues in line with the
National Plan for Human Rights Education. The Human Rights Education Program,
developed by MEC in partnership
with SEDH/PR (in 2005/2006), supported the
training of basic education professionals in the subject, the production and
publication
of teaching material specialized in human rights for teachers and
students, public hearings on the Human Rights Education and the
structuring and
strengthening of the State Committees on Human Rights Education. In 2006, 14
public universities were selected by
MEC in projects to structure and to
strengthen 14 State Committees on Human Rights Education and train teachers of
the public education
network,[1] at a
cost of R$700,000. In 2007, 27 states of the federation were supported to
continue the projects supported in 2006 and initiate
actions in states that did
not have human rights education projects. In 2008, 7,500 educators were trained
by MEC in 15 states of
the federation, in municipalities where public hearings
will also take place, with an investment of R$1.5 million. This action resulted
in the structuring of the Brazilian Human Rights Network. SEDH/PR is investing
an additional R$1.2 million quota in the 12 other
states.

201. In 2009 by public announcement, the e-learning course in Human Rights
Education was provided by the Education Network for Diversity,
part of UAB.
About 5,500 vacancies were provided for 16 higher education institutes, for
extension and specialization courses, with
a workload of 200 hours for extension
and 380 hours for specialization. This course has as its target audience:
education professionals,
community leaders, state committees or Councils of
Human Rights Education members and professionals from areas related to the
National
Plan for Human Rights Education (media, informal education, and justice
and security). In 2010 other higher education institutes
will be selected to
offer the course. The higher education institutions selected will also receive
funding to develop teaching materials.

202. Regarding children and adolescents’ rights, MEC has been
developing some actions considering the high degree of vulnerability
of children
and adolescents, mainly related to factors such as gender, race, ethnicity and
socio-economic inequality, including the
combat against the trafficking of women
and girls for sexual exploitation. The ECA and the Maria da Penha Law regulate
the combat
against various forms of violence and rights violations, and are
important milestones in the current MEC actions in the issue. To
avoid these
various forms of violence and violations of rights, it is necessary to have an
awareness campaign including schools regarding
egalitarian attitudes and ethical
values of unrestricted respect to gender diversity and peace enhancement.
Accordingly, in 2007
the National Pact to Combat Violence against Women was
formed to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women, developing
a
set of measures to be executed between 2008 and 2011, including education.

203. In 2009, a cooperation agreement between MEC, SEDH/PR, the Pro-Child
Portal (associated with Fundação Telefônica)
and the Centre
for Social Entrepreneurship and Third Sector Management – CEATS
(associated with the Institute of Administration
Foundation – FIA) was
signed to develop the course ECA at School, which aims at the implementation of
the Law 11,525/2007.
The course was/is being offered for 2,000 Elementary School
teachers by e-learning, with a workload of 42 hours. In 2009, the schools
that
make up the More Education Program were prioritized, as well as 30 schools that
compose the Socio-Educational System or are
associated with it.

204. To continue this project, in 2010, besides keeping the “ECA at
School” course, e-learning courses about the ECA will
be offered through
UAB to the Education Network for Diversity. These courses will be extension
courses with a workload of 90 hours,
targeting Basic Education professionals
– teachers, state and municipality education managers, school directors
and pedagogical
coordinators, tutelary counselors, counselors of children and
adolescents rights, health professionals, social development professionals,
public and justice security officers, media and communication professionals and
social movements leaders associated with the promotion
and protection of the
children and adolescents rights.

205. The Protecting School Project (EqP) is another strategic project of
public education policy that aims to promote and to defend
the children’s
and adolescents’ rights in the school context by coping and preventing
violence, including all kinds of
violence related to gender, by undertaking the
following actions: (a) continued training of education and Protection Network
professionals
(classroom courses); (b) production of teaching and/or paradidatic
materials; (c) development of the Educational Intervention Plan
by the
professionals who attend the course; (d) coordination of the local Management
Committee to monitor and evaluate the project
implementation; (e) events on
child labor and sexual exploitation on the occasion of 18 May and 12 June. The
priority municipalities
for the development of this project have been defined
from two databases: (a) crossing data from some programs to combat
vulnerabilities,
among those the More Education Program, the National Program of
Public Security with Citizenship and the Intersectoral Matrix of
Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents (ESCCA); (b) municipalities
identified in the Map of Points Vulnerable
to Sexual Exploitation of Children
and Adolescents along the Brazilian Federal Highways (nightclubs, gas stations,
motels, nightclubs,
checkpoints, and others), a partnership of the Federal
Highway Police Department (DPRF), SEDH/PR and ILO.

206. The EqP pilot project implemented in 2004 in Recife, Belém and
Fortaleza, reached 403 schools and 4,340 families, training
1,540 teachers in
the first year. In 2006, with the participation of 20 IELs, EqP reached 800
schools of 84 cities in 18 Brazilian
states, training 4,500 education
professionals in classroom and e-learning modules. Besides training, the Local
Management Committees
began to be articulated to strengthen the Protection
Network in the municipalities. In the 2007 edition, MEC distributed around R$100
thousand to each one of the 22 IESs. The goal of each IES was to train 700
professionals, besides other related actions. In 2008,
SECAD/MEC released the
CD/ENDF Resolution No. 37/2008 for the elaboration of projects to obtain
financial support to coping with
violence. Twenty institutions had their
projects approved with a goal of 500 trained professionals and other actions. In
2009, the
CD/FNDE Resolution No. 17/2009 was released to substantiate the
financial support to 15 public universities.

207. It is noteworthy that in 2008, with the implementation of the More
Education Program established by the Interministerial Normative
Instruction No.
17 of April 24, 2007, the human rights subject in education began to compose the
set of priority actions for Comprehensive
Education, named “macro
fields.” SECAD/MEC has been developing specific materials to support
schools in the development
of actions on which this macro field was
requested.

208. In another important field of action, after the creation of SECAD/MEC in
2004, there has been an improvement in the treatment
of gender, race and
ethnicity issues in public announcements to assess and to select textbooks
distributed to schools. There was
an improvement in the reference to gender
issues and the positive treatment of women in texts and images in the
Announcements of
the National Textbooks Program (PNLD) in 2007 and 2008,
respectively concerning the books for the 1st to the 4th and the 5th to the
9th
grades of the Elementary School. The selection Announcement of textbooks for the
1st and 4th grades for 2010, as well as for
the High School for 2012, released
by the Basic Education Secretariat of the Ministry of Education (SEB/MEC) in
partnership with
SECAD/MEC, has important advances in the criteria for gender
and sexual orientation, even mentioning the fight against homophobia.

209. Parallel to these actions on books, SECAD/MEC edited important
publications on the subject that are worth mentioning and have
been distributed
in the public education networks in Brazil: (a) Feminist Perspectives, organized
by Adriana Piscitelli, Hildete
Pereira de Melo, Sônia Weidner Maluf and
Vera Lúcia Puga; (b) Sexual Diversity in Education: Problems on
Homophobia
in Schools, organized by Rogério Diniz Junqueira; and (c)
School Guide: Methods to Identify Signs of Abuse and Sexual Exploitation
of
Children and Adolescents, produced by SEDH/PR and MEC. The first two correspond,
respectively, to volumes 10 and 33 of the Education
for All Collection, while
the Guide is under review to be widely disseminated.

210. An important strategy to mobilize and to sensitize education
professionals about the abuse and sexual exploitation of children
and
adolescents is the Carnival Campaign. It is held in partnership with the
Subsecretariat for the Promotion the Children’s
and Adolescents’
Rights of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights (SPDCA/SEDH) and the
Interministerial Group against Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children and
Adolescents.

211. Regarding the actions for specific groups, between 2004 and 2006 there
has an increase by 252% in the schools registrations in
quilombo areas according
to the School Census (INEP/MEC). There was also a 61% increase between 2005 and
2006 of the number of schools,
located or not in quilombo areas, which offer
specific material for this group. In 2007 alone, agreements were signed with 15
states
to build schools and improvements on indigenous lands, totaling almost
R$80 million in committed funds. Programs were created for
supporting indigenous
teachers in higher education in indigenous and intercultural graduations
(Program for Supporting Higher Education
Indigenous Graduation – PROLIND).
The goal until 2010 is to expand from the current 1,000 registered teachers to
4,000.

212. For Rural Education, between 2005 and 2007, 8,329 schools were benefited
with actions to support infrastructure improvements
or professional training,
and 727 technicians and 30,676 teachers were trained. Through the Knowledge of
the Earth Project (Projeto
Saberes da Terra), now linked to Projovem, 35,060
youth family farmers were trained in 2 years (2005 and 2006) in 12
states.[2] It is also important to
mention the efforts made to build a specific national policy for training rural
education teachers, breaking
the urban-centered perspective. Also remarkable is
the draft of the university undergraduate course in field education resulting
from the articulation with public universities and other social actors
participating in the Permanent Working Group on Rural Education.

213. In recent years gender projects targeted at students from basic and
higher education have also been being developed. The first,
more specific, is
the Women and Science Program, resulting from a partnership between the SPM/PR,
the MEC (SECAD/MEC and SEB/MEC),
the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT),
CNPq/MCT and UNIFEM. The program is composed by a Researches Announcement of
CNPq/MCT;
by the Building Gender Equality Award; and by the National Meeting of
Research Centers and Research Groups – Thinking about
Gender and Science,
aiming to give value to the research performed and stimulate the production of
new knowledge in the gender relations,
women’s and feminism fields among
high school, professional education, undergraduate and post-graduate students.

214. In the period, two research announcements were launched together with
CNPq/MCT. In its first edition the announcement received
388 research projects
submissions. The proposals came from 25 Brazilian states from all the regions of
the country. The broadening
of the field of studies on gender relations, women
and feminism was evidenced: 42 areas of knowledge presented proposals to the
announcement.
After analyzing them, the CNPq/MCT technical committee recommended
financial support to 130 proposals within the available budget.
In its second
edition, in 2008, the announcement received funds of R$5 million and had a new
partnership with the Ministry of Agrarian
Development (MDA), which sought to
promote the development of research studies on gender and rurality. The
announcement received
364 research project submissions from almost all the
states, and 173 proposals proportionally distributed among all regions were
approved.

215. The 1st National Meeting of Research Centers and Research Groups –
Thinking about Gender and Science was held in 2006 to
map and to analyze the
field of research and studies on gender and science in Brazil. The meeting
gathered in Brasilia 330 researchers
from more than 200 research centers from
all regions of the country. Among the several recommendations of the meeting
were: the introduction
of the gender subject in university curricula; the
transformation of the Women and Science Program into a permanent policy, the
increase
in women’s participation in leadership positions of scientific
research funding agencies (CNPq/MCT, CAPES/MEC); and the inclusion
of gender,
feminism and sexual diversity publications in the national libraries. The 2nd
National Meeting was held in June, 2009,
and brought together an audience of
representatives from more than 150 scientific research centers from all over the
country to discuss
the institutionalization of feminist and gender studies in
education, science and technology systems, the mechanisms of institutional
expansion, support and assessment of scientific publications as means for
consolidating the area, and the strengthening of measures
and actions that
contribute to foster women’s participation in academic science and
technology careers.

216. A fundamental part of the program is the Building Gender Equality Award,
a writing contest for high school students and scientific
papers contest for
undergraduates and post-graduate students. During the I PNPM term, three
editions of the Award were held and the
fourth was launched in 2008. In its
first edition, in 2005, the Award received 1,587 works, while the penultimate
edition in 2008
received 3,002 works (703 for Undergraduate and Postgraduate
categories and 2,299 for the High School category), an increase of 90%
in the
period. The first two editions gave prizes only to the authors of the winning
works – computers, printers and/or research
grants and money prizes,
depending to the category. In the 2007 edition, the educational institutions and
teachers were also awarded
with computers and subscriptions of the Feminist
Studies Journal and the Pagu Books.

217. In the 2009 edition, the award received a total of 3,573 submissions,
704 for the Undergraduate and Postgraduate categories and
2,869 for the High
School one. This latest edition of the award diversified the modalities of
students’ participation and created
the category School Promoting Gender
Equality, which values the work of the school community in the debate about the
approach on
gender issues in the education context, particularly the inclusion
of the subject in the curricula, political-pedagogic project and
teaching
materials. There were 44 submissions in this category and 5 schools will be
awarded at the 5th edition, one per region,
while 27 schools will be awarded in
the 6th edition, one per unit of the federation.

218. To formulate policies that promote the production and dissemination of
statistical information on Higher Education with data
segmented by gender and
race/ethnicity, in December, 2007, the SPM/PR held the Symposium on Brazilian
Gender and Higher Education
Indicators, in a partnership with the National
Institute for Educational Studies and Research of the Ministry of Education
(INEP/MEC).
On that occasion, subjects were discussed such as women’s
trajectory in Higher Education, gender, disciplinary areas, regional
perspectives of higher education and the construction of gender indicators. The
meeting responded to one of the main recommendations
of the 1st National Meeting
of Research Centers and Research Groups – Thinking about Gender and
Science, held in 2006, which
was: “To formulate policies that promote,
using new methodologies, the production and dissemination of statistical
information
on Higher Education with data segmented by gender and
race/ethnicity, in agreements signed between foundations, development agencies,
ministries, representative organizations of the researchers and other public
bodies”.

219. Another project worth mentioning is the Ethics and Citizenship Program,
launched by the MEC in 2004, which address the gender
and other issues with
students. It aims to encourage and to consolidate pedagogical practices that
lead to freedom, social harmony,
human solidarity and the promotion of social
inclusion; strengthening educational activities based on the principles of
ethics, democratic
coexistence, social inclusion and human rights; supporting
the implementation of the School Forum of Ethics and Citizenship and actions
from the public schools communities and youth leaders. It is considered a
continuing education program. Between 2004 and 2007, all
Brazilian states, 626
municipalities, 2,200 schools, 92,400 teachers and over 2.5 million students
were reached. In 2007, approximately
30,000 kits of the program were produced,
containing a volume on Ethnic, Racial and Gender Relations as part of the
support materials
for the project. The program is being currently redesigned and
it will be a continuing education by e-learning with innovations in
the teaching
material and content, especially regarding the gender module. The training
workload will be 180 hours, extending for
five months, giving time to study, to
discuss, to reflect and to structure interventions about the project
subjects.

220. The Thousand Women Project is inserted in the set of public polices
priorities of the Brazilian Government, especially in equity
promotion, gender
equality, combating violence against women and access to education axes. The
program has also contributed to the
achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals promoted by the UN in 2000 and adopted by 191 counties. Among the
established goals
are to end poverty and hunger, gender equality and
women’s autonomy, and environmental sustainability. Integrated with these
priorities, the Thousand Women Project aims by 2010 to promote the professional
and technological training of a thousand poor women
from the Northeast and North
regions. The goal is to ensure the access to professional education and raise
education levels, according
to the educational needs of each community and the
economic potential of the regions. Structured in three axes — education,
citizenship and sustainable development — the program will enable social
inclusion through the provision of training focused
on autonomy and on creating
alternatives for entering the labour market, so these women can improve their
quality of life and their
communities.

221. Concerning Professional and Technological Education, in absolute figures
the enrollment between 2003 and 2005 increased, even
with a slightly higher
enrollment for women than for men, according to INEP/MEC data. (See Figure 2.3
in the annex.)

222. However, observing the technical careers, the so-called male careers
continued with predominance of men, such as industry, information
technology and
agriculture. The exception is construction, which had a considerable increase in
women graduated in this area. Among
the so-called feminine careers, the
predominance of women also continued, especially in health careers, an area
traditionally feminine
since it involves care. (See Table 4.1 in the annex.)

223. On Higher Education, according to the Higher Education Census of 2008
conducted by INEP, enrollment in 2008 was 10.6% higher
than in 2007, with a
total of 5,080,056, of whom 2,772,828 were women and 2,307,228 men. However,
women’s enrollment is concentrated
in teaching and health courses. The
Higher Education Census of 2005 of INEP pointed out that among the ten most
popular undergraduate
courses, women hold the majority in five, mostly in
pedagogy, nursing and language & literature, in which they hold 91.3%, 80%
and 82.9% of total enrollment, respectively, while men hold the majority
enrollment in engineering and computer science with 79.7%
and 81.2%,
respectively.

Article 11

224. In the last years, Brasil has experienced a phenomenon which has been
described as “feminization of the labor market”.
In fact, since the
beginning of the 1990s decade, it has been possible to verify a significant
increase in women’s participation
in the labor market. This is the result
of a combination of factors, among which stand out the drop in fertility rates,
the increasing
female scholarity and changes in values regarding the role and
space of women in society. The highest presence of women performing
productive
activities in the public space associated with their high level of education has
even enabled them to reach more qualified
jobs in the labor market, achieving
important power and decision-making positions, even though in reduced
percentage.

225. While much has been achieved in Brazil regarding the women’s
insertion into the labor market, a space potentially producer
of economic and
social autonomy, there still remains much to advance regarding the guarantee of
equal entry and permanence conditions
in this sphere, as well as remuneration
for the activities developed.

226. This way, assuming that women’s activity rates have significantly
increased over the years, these rates are still much
lower than those recorded
for men. In 2008, 52.2% of women aged 10 years or older and 72.4% of men in the
same age group were employed
or seeking for jobs in the domestic labor market.
In the same direction, the level of occupation — which measures the
proportion
of the total population that is employed — for women reached
47.2% in 2008 against 68.6% for men. On the one hand, there is
a strong movement
of women entering the market, and on the other hand, there is still a situation
of inequality that changes very
slowly over the years, evidencing its
structuring condition in the society (see the figure 3.1 in annex).

227. This situation is largely due to the sexual division of labor, which
still imposes on women the task of unpaid housework and
makes difficult —
or even prevents — their presence in this sphere. In addition, despite the
caring and reproduction
work of families being an activity of crucial importance
for the whole society, it is not considered as economic activity or accounted
as
such. Women with strenuous work hours and important responsibilities are, thus,
considered economically inactive, with the activities
they perform considered as
work only when they are commercialized. It is noteworthy that in 2008, 86.3% of
Brazilian women were engaged
in carrying out household tasks compared to about
45.3% of men. The intensity with which they engage in these tasks is also
different:
women spend around 20.9 hours per week caring for their homes and
families, while men who perform these tasks spend less than 10
hours per week.
It is interesting to highlight that the inequality in the housework work hours
has been reduced over the years much
more by the drop in the number of hours
worked by women, as the men’s housework work hours has remained virtually
unchanged.

228. The decision to enter the labor market, despite all the difficulties
faced, is not achieved with the same intensity for the workers
of both genders.
The women’s unemployment rate, historically, is always higher than
men’s, largely due to the female
reproductive life cycle. While the
men’s unemployment rate was 5.2% in 2008, the women’s one reached
9.6%, representing
more than 1.2 million unemployed women compared to men. The
highest female unemployment rate was recorded in the Southeast (10.5%)
and the
lowest in the Southern region (6.5%), which should be related to the particular
characteristics of the economic structures
of each region. It is important to
highlight that these rates have been falling significantly since 2003, a trend
somewhat more favorable
to women, but insufficient to reverse the structure of
inequality.

229. When women manage to enter the labor market, they occupy more precarious
jobs, in other words, not only the ones which pay less
(or even pro bono), but
also the ones with lower levels of social protection. In 2008, 42% of women aged
15 years or older were employed
in positions considered precarious –
employment without working papers; housework; pro bono jobs; and production and
construction
of goods for self-consumption. Among men, this proportion reached
only 26.2% in the same year. It is noteworthy that there is a trend
of
improvement of the quality of occupation of the population in general which is
somewhat more significant for women, considering
that in 1998 these percentages
were 48.3% and 31.2% for women and men workers, respectively.

230. When considering the employed women’s race or color, it is
possible to notice that the precarious situation is partly determined
by the
racial factor, which is related to inequality in the educational system —
the black population has levels of education
systematically lower than those of
the white population — but also related to processes of discrimination and
prejudice experienced
in the labor market. Then, whereas 35.7% of white women
workers were employed in precarious jobs, this ratio was 49% for black women
workers. Once again, it is important to notice the improvement in the
precariousness of work and inequality scenario, as shown in
Figure 3.2 in
the annex.

231. Domestic work still is Brazilian women’s main occupation, and also
the main occupation for black women. This activity and
its precariousness of
labor relations is a symbol of the discrimination against women. The paid
domestic employment is mostly occupied
by women (93.6%) engaged in caring with
people and household tasks such as cleaning and cooking, while men in this
occupation are
drivers and gardeners. In 2008, these workers were 6.6 million
people. Despite its importance for Brazilian women, the paid domestic
work has
been losing strength throughout the 2000s decade. In 2003, 17.3% of women were
paid domestic workers, while in 2008 the
percentage dropped to 15.8%.

232. The precariousness of the paid domestic work can be clearly realizing
when analyzing the indicators of formal employment. The
low formalization of
paid domestic workers is a trend that affects women in different ways,
according to their race/color or their
location of residence, for example. As a
whole, only a quarter of these women workers had a formal contract in 2008,
meaning that
the remaining 75% women employed in such jobs were socially
unprotected, living in situations of vulnerability such as sickness,
maternity
protection, and aging, among others. The precariousness of such jobs is
significantly more intense for black women, whose
formalization index has
reached 24.4% against 28.9% for white women (see Figure 3.3 in the annex). On
the other hand, regarding this
population’s level of schooling, the women
worker’s average years of study raised from 4.4 years by the end of
1990 to
5.9 years in 2008.

233. These differences in the insertion in the labor market, together
with educational inequalities, segregation of women and black
people in lower
quality jobs, and the existence of discrimination mechanisms and prejudice
based on stereotypes, such as the women’s
incapacity for leadership,
generates a situation of women and blacks who are paid less than men and
whites for the exact same job.
In fact, in 2008, while white women earned 63% of
white men’s average income, black women earned 65.8% of black men’s
average income and only 35.3% of white men’s average income (see
Figure 3.4 in the annex).

234. It is important to highlight that, probably due to the minimum wage
enhancement policy and to social policies of income transference
implemented in
the last decade, the salary gap between these groups have been falling over the
years, although at a slow pace, given
the structural inequalities of the
Brazilian society. Between 2004 and 2008, there was an increase in income for
all men and women,
but it was slightly higher for women, helping to reduce the
salary gap between women and men workers and generating a continued downtrend
of
the wage gap between men and women in the Brazilian economy.

235. In the face of this latent and persistent scenario of inequality, the
Federal Government has been taking actions to expand the
women’s economic
autonomy and to reduce the gender inequalities that still exist in the Brazilian
labor market. Over the 2005–2010
period, several initiatives were created
and the existing ones were deepened, reinforcing the Government’s
commitment to the
consolidation of an integrated national policy for social
inclusion and social inequalities reduction by generating jobs, employment
and
income, promoting and expanding citizenship with specific policies for segments
with particular needs and demands, such as rural,
black and disabled women,
among others.

236. In the programs for qualification and professional inclusion of workers,
there is a priority policy for assistance to women.
In actions taken to
strengthen autonomy, equality at work and citizenship, the actions that sought
to support young women in the
Consortium for Youth Program (First Job) were
primarily stimulated. Since the program’s creation in 2003 until its end
in 2007,
more than 215,000 young people were qualified, inserting more than
65,000 in the labor market. It is possible to say that of all
actions
approximately 55% of the recipients were young women. Under the National
Qualification Plan (PNQ), women had a participation
of 61% over the total
students graduated from the professional qualification courses held with
resources of 2007 which courses were
executed in 2008.

237. In January 2004 a technical cooperation project was started between the
Ministry of Labour and Employment and ILO called “Promotion
of actions on
social and professional qualification to promote social inclusion of men and
women workers”. Aiming to contribute
for the promotion of social inclusion
and income generation through social and professional qualification of men and
women workers,
the project, whose execution was extended until March 2007, had
five major lines of activities, with two of them specifically targeted
to
promote gender equality: “To insert the components of gender, ethnicity,
age and disability in public policies for qualification
and employment and
income generation in order to promote social inclusion of women, black, elderly
and disabled people” and
“To participatively promote improvements on
working conditions and income of paid domestic women workers”. The
training
activities to public managers of the three federative spheres about the
gender and race issues and their relation to PQN were one
of the intervention
axis resulted from this project to foster the implementation of
affirmative policies on PNQ. A second important
axis concerns the
development of a particular policy for paid domestic women workers under the
Sector Qualification Plan (PLANSEQ),
the aforementioned Citizen Paid Domestic
Work Plan (PTDC). As can be seen, the cooperation project established between
the Ministry
of Labour and Employment (MTE) and the ILO has provided the bases
and allowed the development of several of the initiatives mentioned.

238. The Solidarity Economy Programme developed by MTE is connected to the
efforts to promote women’s economic and financial
autonomy through
solidarity initiatives, especially the organization of the sales of solidarity
economy products and services, training
and technical assistance for solidarity
economic enterprises and their networks of cooperation, promoting the solidarity
finance
as community banks and solidarity revolving funds, and the development
of a legal framework for the solidarity economy to guarantee
the right to
associated work. These initiatives intend to strengthen the Solidarity Economic
Enterprises (EESs), which has a significant
participation of women. 22,000 EESs
were registered by 2007 in 52% of Brazilian municipalities, where about 1.7
million people participate,
including 700,000 women in urban and rural
areas.

239. The National Plan for Decent Work (PNTD) was established on 4 June 2009
by presidential decree, resulting from the joint effort
of 18 Ministries and
Secretariats of the Brazilian Government, including the SPM/PR, coordinated by
the MEC. Its goal is to facilitate
the articulation, monitoring and evaluation
of the Federal Government programs and actions regarding the commitments and
goals undertaken
by Brazil, as part of a national strategy for poverty reduction
and promotion of equitable, inclusive and sustainable development.

240. The National Plan is the apex of a process initiated in 2003 with the
signature of the Memorandum of Understanding with the ILO.
An Interministerial
Executive Committee advised by a Tripartite Working Group has undertaken the
implementation of the National Agenda
for Decent Work, launched in 2006, and an
Interministerial Working Group created in February 2008 drafted the National
Plan based
on the programs and actions related to the priorities of the
National Agenda.

241. The National Plan for Decent Work has the following goals regarding
gender:

(a) Integration of the professional qualification policies and workforce
intermediation, especially for youth, women and the black
population;

(b) Initiatives to formalize the informal activities, considering gender and
race; in the specific field of paid domestic work, a
20% increase of workers
with a formal labor contract is expected by the year 2011 and a 30% increase by
2015;

(c) Equal opportunities and treatment for men and women with a 5% increase
in women’s participation and occupation and a 5%
increase for the black
population by 2011, with a growth in these percentages to 10% by 2015;

(d) A 5% decrease in income inequalities between white and black women and
men by 2011 and 20% by 2015;

(e) A 35% increase in the number of women attended by the Women’s
PRONAF by 2011 and 40% by 2015;

(f) A 30% increase in companies adhering to the Pro-Gender Equality
Programme by 2011 and 50% by 2015;

(g) A 30% increase in women trained by the Women’s Work and
Entrepreneurship Programme by 2011 and 50% by 2015;

(h) Training forum and commissions representatives, as well as public
managers, to implement labor public policies by 2011;

(i) Development of methodologies for measuring the budget resources amount
reserved for women’s employment and income generation
to combat poverty
with 30% of data segmented by gender, race and color by 2011 and 50% by
2015;

(j) Conclusion of the ILO consultation process Nr. 156 on workers with
family responsibilities, to be submitted to the National Congress
until 2011, as
well as the ratification of ILO Convention nr. 156 until 2015;

(k) Conclusion of the consultations to equate the paid domestic
workers’ and other workers’ rights by 2011 and to ensure
the same
rights to paid domestic workers and other workers by 2015.

242. Also in partnership with the ILO, it is worthwhile to mention the
implementation of the Agreement BRA/07/03/BRA between SPM/PR
and the ILO –
Technical Cooperation Project “Promotion of Gender and Race Equal
Opportunities in the Workplace”,
which began in 2007, continuing until
March 2010. It aims to contribute to the construction of equality in the
workplace by strengthening
the implementation of the National Women’s
Policies Plan and the National Decent Work Agenda; to strength the institutional
capacity of the SPM/PR to develop, coordinate and implement policies, and
promote the social dialogue on gender and race equality
in the workplace.

243. Among the programs aimed at expanding the women’s economic
autonomy, it is important to mention the following.

244. The Women’s Labour and Entrepreneurship Programme, launched in
2007 by SPM/PR in partnership with the Brazilian Institute
of Municipal
Administration (IBAM), the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service
(SEBRAE) and the Federation of Business
and Professional Women’s
Associations (BPW). Its goal is to promote female entrepreneurship by supporting
women in creating
and developing their own businesses. From the diagnoses in
municipalities where it is has been implemented, actions have been developed
for
mobilization, consciousness-raising, training and technical assistance to enable
the creation and sustainability of women’s
businesses. The program targets
both those women identified as being endowed with entrepreneurial ability to
create new businesses
and/or maintain the existing ones and those poor and
extremely poor in a situation of social risk and vulnerability enrolled in
programs
of social inclusion, as well as their family network. Between 2007 and
2009, the program was implemented in the states of Rio de
Janeiro, Santa
Catarina, Distrito Federal, Pará and Pernambuco, and 3,600 women have
been already assisted, with an expectation
to assist more 2,200 by 2010.

245. The Women Building Autonomy in Construction Programme, an initiative of
the SPM/PR in partnership with the ILO, aims to: (a)
to contribute to the
sustainable development of the country and to generate employment and income
from the strengthening and enhancement
of the construction work for women, (b)
to promote social inclusion, empowerment and autonomy of women in vulnerable
socioeconomic
and domestic violence situations by expanding employment and
income opportunities, and (c) to reduce inequality and gender discrimination
in
the workplace by developing new knowledge and field of work for women. The
program is developed from the professional training
of women for the development
of abilities, skills and theoretical and practical knowledge in the area of
civil construction (masons,
painters, carpenters, plumbers, tile setters,
ceramic tile setters, bricklayers, and foremen). The curriculum of the courses
consists
of three modules which cover topics from the world of construction,
sustainable development and women’s economic and financial
autonomy.
Throughout the lessons, beyond the specific topics of construction, topics are
addressed such as language and non-discriminatory
culture, women’s power
and participation, decent work, citizenship and quality of life, and health and
safety at work. The
program’s priority is to serve women who are poor,
black, low-income, or have poor schooling, or are at socioeconomic risk
and
vulnerable to domestic violence. 12 municipalities have been identified as
priority areas for implementation of the program —
which began in 2009
— in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia,
Ceará, Mato Grosso and Acre.

246. The Women’s Work, Handicrafts, Tourism and Autonomy Programme is
being implemented by the SPM/PR since 2008 with the goal
of strengthening public
policies to encourage local tourism through the formulation of strategies for
the craft production sector,
ensuring the autonomy and the title role of women
artisans from the perspective of gender equality and regional cultural identity.
The program is developed from the women’s social and professional skills
directed at the craft production in tourist areas
from the perspective of the
solidarity economy, environmental sustainability, enhancement of women’s
work and local cultures.
The program, which is linked to the National Pact for
the Combat of Violence against and actions to combat sex tourism, proposes
to
issue a Seal of Origin to certify the handicraft products made by women. Next to
the identification of the individual craftswoman
and the information about each
product will be the certification that the products were produced in accordance
with the principles
of gender equality and fair trade. The state of Tocantins
was the first to receive the program with a goal of attending 4,500 women
in 13
municipalities from 2008 to 2010. In 2009, the program was implemented in the
states of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Rio Grande do
Sul and Mato Grosso do Sul, whose
actions will continue in 2010.

247. The Program of Support to Artisan Communities, developed by the Ministry
of Culture (MinC) with the purpose of (re)defining and
expanding the presence of
traditional handicrafts in domestic and foreign markets, promoting its economic
dynamism. Women are the
priority public of this intervention.

248. Other initiatives were developed that are more focused on promoting
equal opportunities and treatment. This is the case of the
Pro-Gender Equity, a
partnership of SPM/PR with the ILO and UNIFEM, which aims to promote equality of
opportunity and treatment among
men and women in companies and institutions
through the development of new concepts in people management and organizational
culture.
For this, the strategy adopted by the program include encouraging
voluntary adhesion of companies and the establishment by them of
a plan of
action to promote equal opportunities between men and women in the workplace,
besides signing of a term of commitment to
its implementation. The
2005–2006 edition of the program, launched in September 2005, attended
only public and mixed economy
companies, which undertook to carry out actions to
promote gender equity over 12 months. Eleven institutions were awarded the
Pro-Equity
Seal by having developed important actions towards the promotion of
equality. In 2007 the second edition of the program was launched,
expanding its
coverage to private companies. 36 companies from the public and private sectors
have joined the program, of which 23
received the Pro-Gender Equity Seal at the
end of 2008. In the 2009–2010 edition, 71 organizations from the
public and private
sectors have joined the program, and the Seal will be
delivered in 2011.

249. In order to broaden and to strengthen the achievements obtained with
such initiatives, recognizing the persistence of sexist
practices in the
workplace, in December 2009 the SPM/PR proposed to the Federal Congress a
pioneering Employment Equality Act, which
creates mechanisms to ensure equality
between women and men in urban and rural labor relations and restraining
discriminatory practices.

250. The proposal, an initiative of the SPM/PR in partnership with MJ and MTE
and with contributions from other organizations and
professionals from various
areas, states the ordinary law of fundamental rights on equality in employment
relationships and implements
the gender equality principle in access to
employment, training and career development and general working conditions. It
takes into
account constitutional principles, international standards ratified
by Brazil and the ILO conventions, and consolidates a wide range
of propositions
in progress in the Chamber of Deputies. The Draft also responds to a trend in
countries from the Latin America (Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru
and Uruguay) and the European Community (Treaty of Amsterdam/1999) that have
enacted legal instruments
to promote gender equality.

251. The lines of action defined in the Draft are: (a) balance between family
and professional responsibilities; (b) fostering equality
and combating
discrimination; (c) prevention and restraining of sexual and moral harassment in
employment relationships; (d) assisting
women workers through nurseries and
temporary shelters for elderly; (e) introducing into the Consolidation of Labor
Laws, the Internal
Pro-Equity Commissions.

252. The goal of the mobilization around the creation of a Law dealing with
equality in the workplace is to effect in this sphere
the constitutional
principle of equality between women and men, guided by the idea of translating
the declaration of equality enshrined
in constitutional provisions and
infraconstitutional standards to prevent and to deter any discriminatory
practices affecting the
women’s dignity. The aim is, therefore, to ensure
that the growing insertion of women into the labor market occurs with respect
to
the specificities of women’s conditions and their permanence in
employment, even fighting along with the State’s actions
against all forms
of discrimination based on sex, race and ethnicity.

253. Considering the importance of paid domestic work for women’s
employment and the precariousness of this occupation, the
Government has been
developing through the SPM/PR a set of initiatives aimed, firstly, to extend the
rights of these workers and,
secondly, to ensure their enjoyment of the rights.
So the Federal Government issued the Law No. 11.324/2006, which amended articles
of Law No. 5.859/1972, expanding the labor rights of paid domestic workers, who
now have the right to an annual vacation of 30 days,
paid weekly leave on
Sundays and holidays and employment stability since the confirmation of
pregnancy to five months after childbirth.
The employer also can no longer
deduct the costs of food, shelter and hygiene from the worker’s salary.
The Law also encourages
the formalization of the paid domestic work through the
deduction on income tax of the employer’s contribution paid to Social
Security until the year 2010 (calendar year 2011). This deduction is granted on
the value of the collection corresponding to a minimum
monthly wage of one
worker, including the portion of the thirteenth salary and one-third increase in
salary for the vacation pay.

254. In November 2005 the Citizen Paid Domestic Work Plan (PTDC) was launched
and is also focused on paid domestic work. A result
of a partnership between
MTE, SPM/PR, SEPPIR/PR and ILO, the Plan aims at professional qualification and
enhancing the education
of paid domestic workers, as well as strengthening the
union organization of that professional category, to ensure the empowerment
of
these women and to enable them so they can improve their intervention for the
improvement of public policies. After training 40
educators, a pilot module was
implemented in 2006 and 2007, empowering 350 women selected by local unions, of
which 210 were in professional
qualification and 140 in union training. For the
period of implementation of the PNPM II, 2008–2011, the objectives include
the implementation of the program on a national scale in the axes of increasing
educational level, professional qualification and
social intervention in public
policies through its articulation with the Young and Adults Education (EJA)
actions. The MTE is selecting
partners to take up the project in 2010, and the
goal is to achieve social and professional qualification of 2,100 women workers
in 13 states.

255. Regarding maternity leave, in 2008 Law No. 11,770 was enacted,
establishing the Corporate Citizenship Program and intended to
extend maternity
leave from four to six months. The extension of the benefit is optional and
serves the direct, indirect and foundational
public administration and the
private initiative. During the extension of maternity leave, the employee is
entitled to his full compensation,
payable as the paid maternity leave set by
the general social security framework. This benefit is also extended to
employees who
adopt or obtain judicial custody for adopting a child.

256. In December 2008, the Federal Government started to implement the six
months maternity leave for its female public servants,
and as a result of the
women’s struggle in the states, various state and local public
administrative bodies joined the maternity
leave extension to 180 days, a total
of 14 units of the federation and 108 municipalities. Some municipalities also
increased the
paternity leave from five to seven days. Within the private
sector, the Law proposes the adhesion of the private sector to the Corporate
Citizen Program by granting tax incentives. The company may deduct from income
tax the two extra months of the worker’s paid
leave, but only legal
entities taxed on actual profits may adhere, thus being excluded all other
workers.

Article 12

257. In Brazil, the actions and public health services are provided by
government bodies and institutions (federal, state and municipal)
and public
institutions that control quality, research and the production of inputs,
medicines, including blood and blood products,
and health equipments. This set
of actions and services composes the Unified Health System (SUS), as provided in
Article 4 of the
Organic Law of the SUS (Law No. 8080, 1990).

258. Among the principles and guidelines of the Brazilian public health
system, the universality, fairness and completeness are the
highlights. By
universality, everybody was guaranteed access to free health services at all
levels of assistance, and by fairness,
the health care is provided to everybody,
without prejudice or privileges of any kind. Finally, completeness refers to the
cohesive
and continuous actions, and preventive and curative services,
individual as well as collective, required for each case at all levels
of system
complexity.

259. In order to ensure universality, fairness and completeness of the
actions and health services, it becomes necessary to draft
and implement public
policies that address the specifics of certain population groups – in most
cases considered vulnerable,
therefore needing more care and protection from the
State. Thus, a public health policy focused on the particularities and needs
of
the female population is essential.

260. In this sense, the Brazilian Government, through MS with the
participation of SPM/PR, aiming to give specialized care to women’s
health, established the National Comprehensive Women’s Healthcare Policy.
The policy emphasizes health promotion and extends
the proposed actions by the
Comprehensive Women’s Healthcare Program (PAISM), of 1983, as well as
enhancing social control,
integrating the contribution of women’s
movements and other civil society organizations. It also seeks to consolidate
the advances
in the field of sexual and reproductive rights, incorporating the
perspectives of gender, race, ethnicity and generation. The actions
of I and II
PNPM consolidated and institutionalized the National Policy in force since
2004.

261. Given the comprehensiveness of the health actions for the female
population, several other policies, plans and programs were
implemented in order
to meet the specificities of women’s health. In this context, the main
actions and health policies stand
out which were developed and implemented by MS
in line especially with Chapter 3 of I and II PNPM, coordinated by the SPM/PR,
which
deals with “Women’s health, and sexual and reproductive
rights”. Such actions and policies reinforce and complement
the National
Comprehensive Women’s Healthcare Policy.

262. For a better presentation of the main welfare policies for women’s
health, the policies were divided by subjects, considering
the main purpose for
which they are intended, although there is no possibility of thinking and
running them separately, otherwise
it would deconstruct and harm the integrity
of specialized care to the female population.

1. Sexual and reproductive health

National Sexual and Reproductive Rights Policy

263. This launched in 2005 as a tool to increase the quantity and diversity
of methods of contraception distributed by MS to states
and municipalities. The
Policy is based on a broad concept of women’s health, which incorporates
the dimensions of sexual and
reproductive health in order to prevent unintended
pregnancies and reduce the resulting number of abortions and maternal deaths
resulting
from them. Aiming to serve the entire population, especially those in
childbearing age, and focusing on information about family
planning, the Policy
is organized into three axes: expanding supplies of reversible contraceptive
methods, improving access to surgical
sterilization and introduction of assisted
human reproduction in SUS. Since the Policy was launched, the MS assumed the
acquisition
of 100% of contraceptive methods to SUS users and included, besides
the pill, mini pill, emergency contraceptive pills (distributed
since 2006),
injectable contraceptives, diaphragm, male condoms and IUDs.

National Family Planning Policy

264. Law No. 9263, of 1996, deals with family planning and states it is part
of a series of care actions for the women, men or the
couple, within a global
and comprehensive vision of healthcare. In this context — even
strengthening the National Sexual and
Reproductive Rights Policy — in 2007
the National Family Planning Policy was launched.

265. This policy included the practice of vasectomy in the National Elective
Surgeries Policy as well as the availability of contraceptives
in pharmacies and
drugstores accredited in the Popular Pharmacy Program, which promotes the sale
of medicines subsidized by MS at
prices with a discount of up to 90%. The
expansion of investments in contraceptives has been a guideline of the MS work
since 2003.
In fact, while in 2002 the Ministry invested about R$7 million to
buy contraceptives, in 2005 R$27 million were spent, and R$100
million were made
available in 2007, an increase of almost 1,400%. The MS agenda for discussion
has the technology transfer to Farrmanguinhos
(oral contraceptives) and for the
Popular Medicine Foundation of SP (IUD) in order to expand the domestic
production of contraceptives
by government laboratories – an action that
may impact on the difficulty to acquire methods. On 2010 are planned workshops
to incorporate new methods and update the list offered by MS. Another line of
action of the Policy refers to non-reversible contraceptive
methods. The goal in
that case is to expand women’s access to sterilization (tubal ligation
surgery) in public hospitals. In
2006, there were 1,500 accredited services.

Abortion

266. The admissions for abortion complications in SUS have an important
dimension in the midst of all causes of hospitalization. Taking
into account the
risks and consequences of unsafe abortion and its complications, it is a serious
public health problem that affects
mainly young women in the country The
introduction and expansion of the contraceptive methods supply in the SUS and
increasing access
should be seen as important prevention measures to unsafe
abortion and so urgent. In the period from 2007 to 2008, there was a reduction
of 14.4% on post-abortion curettage and the increase of abortions provided by
law. (See table 5.1 in the annex.)

267. Technical standards, 2005, compiled by MS: still in this field, the
government’s decision stands out to face the discussion
about voluntary
abortion, elaborating the technical standard of Humanized Care for Abortion,
enabling professionals from major hospitals,
and the Technical Standard on the
Prevention and Treatment of Harm caused by Sexual Violence.

268. In Brazil, abortion is a crime, being allowed only in cases of
sentimental abortion (pregnancy resulting from rape) and therapeutic
abortion
(if there is no other way to save the mother’s life), according to the
provisions of Article 128 of the Brazilian
Criminal Code. The law is silent
regarding fetal malformations, but the Complaint of Breach of Fundamental
Precept No. 54 is in the
process of being judged, to be voted on by the Supreme
Court possibly in the first half of 2010, which discusses the possibility
of
decriminalization of abortion of anencephalic fetuses.

Obstetric care

Training obstetric doctors and nurses

269. In the field of obstetric care, the MS is developing strategies and
actions that consolidate the paradigm shift to humanize and
qualify healthcare,
to move forward in the process of institutionalization of the policy and to
strengthen the state and municipal
managers. One of these strategies is the
ongoing realization of the ALSO (Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics) course,
for training
obstetric doctors and nurses for providing training services in the
area of the Emergency Care and Emergency Obstetrics, in the five
Brazilian
regions, prioritizing the Legal Amazon and the Northeast, with 1,000
participants between 2009 and 2010. It is also conducting
the review,
printing and distribution of manuals and technical standards so the health
services professionals of SUS can master the
subject and they can be made
adequate to the local realities.

270. This was launched in 2008. The high rate of caesarean sections,
especially in Health Insurance, many of them unnecessary, exposes
women to
avoidable risks.

National Healthcare Emergencies Policy

271. There was a considerable advance in the structuring of attention to the
urgencies and emergencies in the area of women’s
health with the
establishment of the National Healthcare Emergencies Policy, which has as one of
its components the Emergency Mobile
Healthcare Service (SAMU 192). Among the
skills that the SAMU 192 team must have is taking care of obstetric
emergencies.

Legislation

272. Law No. 11,634 of 27 December 2007, which disposes over the right of
pregnant women to know and to be linked to the maternity
ward where will receive
assistance under the Unified Health System (SUS).

273. Publication of Law No. 11,108 of 7 April 2005, which guarantees to
pregnant women the right to the presence of a companion during
labor, delivery
and immediate postpartum under the SUS.

274. Publication in 2008 of the RDC No. 36 of the National Health
Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), which regulates the operation of the
obstetric and
neonatal care services.

Other actions

275. Other actions include:

• Qualification of the blood banks in municipalities with higher
maternal mortality ratios

276. This included as one of its priority goals to reduce maternal mortality,
including efforts to control breast and cervical cancer,
with priorities
expressed in municipal, regional, state and national goals showing the
commitment of the three spheres of the SUS
direction to prioritize such care.

National Pact for the Reduction of Maternal and Neonatal
Mortality

277. In operation since 2004, this was considered by the United Nations as a
model for promoting the Millennium Development Goals.
It potentiated the
strategies for expansion, qualification and humanization of reproductive
planning and obstetric care, contemplating
abortion. The National Pact works
through the integration of the three spheres of government – federal,
state and municipal
– and organizations representing civil society. All 27
states have adhered to the Pact. Among the activities to implement this
strategy, the priority is the introduction of the humanization of obstetric and
neonatal care on the agenda of states and municipalities.

Plan for the Reduction of Infant Mortality in the Legal Amazon and
Northeast

278. Whereas the actions aimed at reducing infant and neonatal mortality also
have an impact on the reduction of maternal mortality,
it is worth noting the
Plan for the Reduction of Infant Mortality in the Legal Amazon and Northeast,
which includes 154 municipalities
in eight Northeastern states and 96
municipalities in nine states of the Legal Amazon.

279. The main objective of the Action Plan is to reduce by 5% per annum the
rate of infant and neonatal mortality in 250 priority
municipalities located in
the Legal Amazon and the Northeast Region in 2009 and 2010. For this, the Plan
includes six major axes:

(a) Qualify the prenatal, childbirth and newborn care: Expanding the number
of Family Health Teams (FHT)[3] and
Support Centers for Family Health
(NASF)[4] in cities/areas without
care, expansion of ICU beds and Intermediate Care Units (ICU), the adequacy of
the physical spaces of maternity
wards/referral hospitals, deployment of
SAMU[5] in priority municipalities for
the safe transportation of pregnant women and newborns, expansion of the Human
Milk Banks Network
and implementation of Kangaroo Mother Care in
maternity/referral hospitals;

(b) Health education: ESF’s qualification to identify and to refer
pregnant women and newborns at risk; qualifications of pediatricians
and
gynecologists of NASF; qualification of professionals involved in emergency and
obstetric emergencies in maternity wards/referral
hospitals; qualification for
SAMU professionals; qualification of information and health surveillance
professionals;

(c) Information management: increased coverage and quality of the Mortality
Information System (SIM) and Live Births Information
System (SINASC), in order
to calculate directly the Infant Mortality Rate in states and
municipalities;

(e) Strengthening social control, social mobilization and communication;

(f) Production of knowledge and research studies: promotion for research
studies in the Northeast and the Legal Amazon on subjects
related to infant and
maternal mortality, among other actions.

Health and education

280. Whereas the Family Planning Law foresees educational activities, the
Health in School Program (PSE) was established through the
Presidential Decree
No. 6286 of December 5, 2007. Result of collaboration between the MS and the
MEC, it has the prospect of expanding
the specific health actions to students of
the Public School Network: Basic Education, High School, the federal network of
professional
and technological education and Youth and Adult Education (EJA).
The PSE contemplates different answers regarding the right to health
and
development, which will be given in different dimensions: situational analysis
of children, adolescents and youth health conditions;
healthcare in situations
of illness, establishing a network of referral and counter-referral, and health
promotion and prevention,
enabling the school community to strengthen the debate
citizenship rights and integrate the health issue throughout the educational
projects.

Control and treatment of breast and cervical cancer

Action Plan for the Control of Breast and Cervical Cancer
(2005–2007)

281. The neoplasms, particularly the breast, lung and cervical cancers, are
among the six leading causes of mortality among Brazilian
women.The Plan
is a fundamental component of the National Oncology Care Plan, instituting
actions for Promotion, Prevention, Diagnosis,
Treatment, Rehabilitation and
Palliative Care. This policy is being implemented in all federal units, given
the competences of the
three administrative divisions, and shall be organized in
coordination with the MS and the Health Secretariats of the states and
municipalities. It presents six Strategic Guidelines — Increased Coverage
of the Target Population, Quality Assurance, Strengthening
the Information
System, Training, Research Development, Social Mobilization — composed by
actions that have been developed,
from the year 2005, at the different levels of
healthcare.

Legislation

282. Law No. 11,664 of April 29, 2008 was also published, which disposes
about the execution of health activities to ensure the prevention,
detection,
treatment and monitoring of breast and cervical cancer under the Unified Health
System (SUS).

2. Confronting the epidemic of HIV and other STDs

Integrated Plan to Combat the Feminization of the Epidemic of AIDS and
other STDs

283. The plan launched in March 2007, it is another joint action with MS led
by SPM/PR. The prevention, diagnosis and treatment of
STDs and AIDS are
cross-sector, under the perspective of universality, comprehensiveness and
fairness. The Plan contemplates the
various health needs of women and their ways
of expression, ensuring access to qualified health services for the
identification of
vulnerabilities; sexual and reproductive healthcare; receiving
human rights, education and health demands; social assistance; and
protection in
situations of violence. It also allows the consolidation of the commitment to
affirm and to assure the women’s
rights guaranteed in Brazilian
legislation and to implement policies aimed at reducing inequalities in the
country. The fundamental
reason for the success of these policies was the
incorporation of different sectors of the Government and NGOs. For its
implementation,
the Plan has the support of the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the
United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM).

284. In order to implement the Plan fully in all states and municipalities in
the country, macroregional workshops were held with
state health managers,
coordinations of policies for women and civil society leaders (Networks of
HIV-serum positive women, feminist,
black, young, and disabled women, lesbians,
transsexuals and prostitutes). All states had these workshops except
Amapá, and
20 state and district action plans were drafted. Submitted to
public consultation in 2009, the Integrated Plan is currently under
validation
of its monitoring indicators.

285. The fundamental and innovative element of the government strategy is
tackling multiple vulnerabilities that contribute to increase
the Brazilian
women’s susceptibleness to HIV infection and other sexually transmitted
diseases. In fact, over the last years
there was a significant increase of HIV
infections among women. At the beginning of the epidemic, the proportion was
15.1 HIV cases
in men for each one in women. Currently the ratio is 1.5 men for
each woman, indicating a persistent and proportionately more intense
growth in
female infection, especially among married adult women.

286. First Women and HIV Policies Ministerial Meeting: Building Alliances
between the Portuguese-Speaking Countries towards Universal
Access (2008). This
meeting had as three major products the Rio Declaration, the Promotion and
Agenda of South-South Cooperation
between Portuguese-Speaking Countries and
Political Advocacy Campaign.

3. Assistance to women victims of violence

287. The Technical Women’s Health, in the Strategic Programmatic
Actions Department, from the Healthcare Department of the Ministry
of Health
operates permanently in the deployment and implementation of care services for
women and adolescents in situations of domestic
and sexual violence; in
supporting the training of professionals from the Municipalities and State
Networks of Comprehensive Healthcare
for Women and Adolescents in Situation of
Violence; by strengthening and expanding the clinical and pharmaceutical care
with the
use of emergency contraception and the prophylaxis of sexually
transmitted diseases ( STD/AIDS) and viral hepatitis; in the provision
of
care for abortions provided by the Law and the psychosocial accompaniment of the
victims.

288. One of the actions that the Federal Government develops through the
SPM/PR is the National Pact to Combat Violence against Women.
Its Action Plan is
divided into three areas: diagnosis, prevention/education and service
organization. It foresees that the resources
and strategies must be directed to
structuring the service network for women victims of violence, to combat sexual
exploitation and
trafficking in women and to promote imprisoned women’s
human rights, among others, seeking to effectively strengthen the sustainability
of the National Network of Comprehensive Healthcare for Women and Adolescents in
Situation of Domestic and Sexual Violence.

289. In the Health aspect, the expansion of the National Network is directly
related to state and local partnerships established with
MS and/or their own
local initiatives for human resources training, adequacy of hospital
environments and provision of medicines
(emergency contraception, antiretroviral
drugs, vaccines, and others), as well as the organization of the network and
referral and
cross-referral services in the municipality.

290. The following are actions in development by MS and the results achieved
by the implementation and expansion of the networks and
services of
comprehensive healthcare for women and adolescents in situations of domestic and
sexual violence in states and municipalities
prioritized epidemiologically.

291. In January 2007, 138 hospitals attended sexual violence situations
committed against women and adolescents. In October 2009,
this number rose to
443 hospitals, and 60 performed abortions for medical and legal reasons.

292. There are under developing partnerships with 25 State Health Departments
to implement new municipal networks related to the investments
made in the years
2007 and 2008. This year, 216 municipalities are in the process of organizing
their healthcare service, with an
expected training of 5,800 health
professionals and partner areas.

293. Establishment of a technical partnership with the University of Brasilia
in the development of methodologies and educational
materials on the issue of
trafficking in women and health-related issues to introduce into the SUS the
possibility of comprehensive
care. The partnership foresees training for 1,000
health professionals from diverse backgrounds according to the legislation in
force.

294. Partnership with the Centre for Maternal and Child Care Campinas
(CEMICAMP) and the Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics
Associations (FEBRASGO) in the project “Overcoming Barriers”, which
carries out discussions for gynecologists throughout
the country and promotes
the integration of advanced technologies on Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA),
Post-abortion Care and abortion
provided by law in hospitals and services that
are in the process of deployment of such care.

295. Partnership with the Patrícia Galvão Institute on the
Media and Communication Project to provide healthcare to
sexual violence
victims: this strategy foresees training professionals for a closer contact with
the media, promoting the protection
of victimized women/ adolescents/children,
the care team, the health unit involved and bringing communicators to potential
partnerships.
9 states are benefited with a total of 250 trained spokespeople.

296. Partnership with the Citizenship and Reproduction Committee (CCR) to
organize seminars and technical meetings on Secular State,
Democracy and Human
Rights. An amendment to continue the actions in 2010 was presented and was
accepted and forwarded by the CCR.

297. An agreement for implementation of the Care Network for Women and
Adolescents in Situations of Violence is in development in
the state of Mato
Grosso do Sul, including the legal abortion service.

298. During the Brazilian Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics, one held the
First Maternal and Child Mortality Workshop in MERCOSUL,
the XIV
Interprofessional Forum on Violence against Women and Implementation of Legal
Abortion, the Second Meeting of the National
Network of Comprehensive Attention
to Women and Adolescents in Situations of Domestic and Sexual Violence and the
XII National Committee
Plenary Meeting. In addition to the actions and policies
presented, focused on specialized women’s healthcare, the following
other
actions are noteworthy that reinforce and complement the comprehensive care on
the National Comprehensive Women’s Healthcare
Policy.

1. Comprehensive black women’s healthcare

299. Actions include publication of technical material and promotion of
events to discuss the issue, data collection and inclusion
of ethnic and racial
clippings on the information systems and actions of the MS; 50% increase in the
value of incentives for the
ESF and oral health serving remaining quilombo or
settlement populations; establishment of an Obstetric Screening handbook;
National
Healthcare Program for Sickle Cell Disease and other Hemoglobinopathies
Patients (PAF), with emphasis on the specificities of women
in childbearing age
and on the pregnancy-puerperium cycle; National Comprehensive Black’s
Healthcare Policy (PNSIPN): was established
by Instruction No. 992 of May 13,
2009. The primary goal of the Policy is to combat ethnic and racial
discrimination in services
and care provided by SUS, as well as promoting equity
in health. Among the PNSIPN strategies, specifically the ones related to
women’s
health, are:

(a) Development of specific actions to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in
health and diseases conditions, considering the local
and regional needs,
particularly in maternal and infant mortality and in mortality caused by violent
causes, sickle cell disease,
STD/HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, leprosy, breast and
cervical cancer, and mental disorders;

(b) Strengthening mental healthcare for women and black men, especially
those with problems caused by alcohol and other drugs;

(c) Improving the quality and humane approach to black women’s
healthcare, including gynecological, obstetrical, postpartum,
during menopause
and in abortion care, in states and municipalities;

(d) Technical and financial incentive to organize integrated healthcare
networks for black women in situations of sexual, domestic
and family
violence;

(e) Realization of the First National Meeting of Women with Sickle Cell
Anemia (2009).

2. Comprehensive imprisoned women’s and adolescents’
healthcare

300. National Prison System Health Plan was established by the Health
Instruction No. 1777, of 2003. In May 2007 a intra-sector working
group was
created with the participation of SPM/PR, DEPEN/MJ, MS, various public entities
and representatives of civil society organizations,
aiming to draft proposals
for the reorganization and reformulation of the Brazilian Women’s
Prison System.

3. Comprehensive indigenous women’s healthcare

301. MS created an intra-sector working group with the participation of
indigenous women leaders to develop/to implement comprehensive
healthcare for
this population group, present on the I PNPM. The state and local managers were
supported to organize the indigenous
healthcare, giving priority to women and
training health professionals and midwives in 34 indigenous health districts for
immediate
intervention.

4. Comprehensive disabled women’s healthcare

302. Currently, healthcare to people with disabilities is guaranteed by the
State Hearing Healthcare Networks, the State Healthcare
Networks for People with
Physical Disabilities, the Healthcare Networks for the Visually Impaired and the
Healthcare Services to
People with Intellectual Disabilities. For each
Specialized Service, there are specific Instructions published by MS, listing
their
assignments as well as the criteria and requirements necessary for
enabling these services, as follows:

(a) State Healthcare Networks for People with Physical Disabilities –
Instruction MS/GM 818/01 and MS/SAS 185, both from June
2001;

(b) State Hearing Healthcare Networks – Instruction MS/GM No.
2.073/04, of September 28, 2004 and the MS/SAS Instructions No.
587 and No. 589,
of September 2004;

(c) Healthcare Networks for the Visually Impaired – Instructions GM/MS
No. 3128 and No. 3129, both from 24 December 2008;

(d) Healthcare Services to People with Intellectual Disabilities –
Instruction MS/GM No. 1635, of September 2002;

(e) Instruction SAS/MS No. 400 – National Healthcare Guidelines to the
Ostomized under the Unified Health System – SUS,
from November 2009.

303. The National Healthcare Policy for the Disabled foresees that
comprehensive healthcare elements for people with disabilities
considered, and
methods and specific techniques to ensure actions focused on sexual and
reproductive health, including medicines,
technology resources and specialist
interventions. Thus, MS launched in 2009 the National Sexual and Reproductive
Rights Consultation
of Persons with Disabilities (Consultation No. 1, 2009).

304. In 2009 was published the book Sexual and reproductive rights in
comprehensive healthcare for people with disabilities (Direitos sexuais e
reprodutivos na integralidade da atenção à saúde de
pessoas com deficiência), to guide and to raise awareness among state
and municipal managers in the implementation of actions aimed at sexual and
reproductive
health. The healthcare to women with disabilities is one of the
priorities of this document.

305. Among the actions developed together with the Women’s Health
technical area, the involvement of State Coordinators of Healthcare
to People
with Disabilities stands out in the drafting of the Comprehensive Plan to Combat
the Feminization of AIDS and other Sexually
Transmitted Diseases Epidemics.

5. Comprehensive transgender women’s healthcare

306. Instruction GM/MS No. 1707 of 18 August 2008 established the National
Guidelines for the Transsexualizing Process in the Unified
Health System
(SUS).

307. Instruction SAS/MS No. 457, from 19 August 2008, which sets the rules
for entitlement of Specialized Healthcare Units in the
Transsexualizing Process
and Specialized Healthcare Guidelines in the Transsexualizing Process.

6. Comprehensive lesbians and bisexual women’s healthcare

308. The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Technical Committee
was created in 2004 by the understanding that there is
a need to implement
comprehensive healthcare policies for this population and to ensure the
participation of the Ministry in creation
and implementation of intersector
strategies through various government areas previously identified in the Brazil
without Homophobia
Program. As a result of this Technical Committee, can be
highlighted the following activities.

309. It’s Time to Take Care of Health (Chegou a hora de cuidar
da saúde, 2007) booklet, prepared by the Women’s Health Technical
Area in partnership with
the National Viral Hepatitis Program and the National
STD/AIDS Program from the MS, which provides information about sexuality,
pregnancy,
menopause, food, drugs, law and violence, besides other subjects
related to health, specifically for lesbian and bisexual women.

310. The National Policy for Comprehensive Healthcare to the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transvestites Population, after being submitted
to public
consultation (2008), was approved by the National Health Council, but has not
yet been established.

7. Comprehensive elderly women’s healthcare

311. The National Elderly Healthcare Policy, approved by Ministerial
Instruction No. 2528 of 19 October 2006, is justified by the
fact that aging is
also a gender issue. Fifty-five percent of the elderly population is women. The
proportion of female contingent
is more expressive the older the segment.

312. The Menopausal Healthcare Handbook (2008) was also prepared.

8. Adolescent and youth healthcare

313. Besides developing programs such as Health and Prevention in Schools,
the MS developed the National Comprehensive Adolescents’
Healthcare
Policy, the Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents and
Youth, included indicators in the Pacts and
technical documents that contribute
to give visibility to the adolescent health issue, promoted research, and
supported the states
in the healthcare organization to this portion of the
population.

9. Rural and forest women’s healthcare

314. Together with the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers
(CONTAG) the MS funded the training of peer educators on “Gender,
Health
and Sexual and Reproductive Rights”, mainstreaming the approach of the
gender, sexual and reproductive rights, race
and ethnicity, and the prospect of
territoriality in the policies of the Rural Landless Workers’ Movement
(MSTT).

315. The Group on Earth, established in 2004, established the National Health
Policy of the Rural and Forest Populations. It aims
to promote different
treatment to those in unequal conditions, thus reducing inequalities in order to
increase the level of human
development of rural and forest populations. While
it has not been established, this policy has already been approved by the
National
Health Council.

Article 13

316. See Article 11 of this Report.

Article 14

317. The form of work organization in rural communities reproduces to a large
extent the sexual division of labor found in the urban
and industrial society.
In that sphere, women are responsible for reproductive and domestic work, while
men work to generate cash
income, the only work recognized as productive. Such
distinctions are accompanied by unequal evaluations and representations that
sustain, for example, the notion of help from men at home and help from women in
the field. The sexual division of labor makes the
women’s work invisible,
disregarding their contribution to the generation of monetary income of the
family, increasing the
segregation of family work and concentrating the
management mechanisms and decision-making within the family production unit or
the
production group controlled by men.

318. Only recently a set of coordinated actions of the Federal Government and
of feminist movements and organizations was composed
aimed at promoting economic
autonomy and equality for rural women. In this scenario, and considering the
provisions of the PNPMs,
it was left to the MDA to develop a set of actions to
promote gender equality in land reform, family agriculture, territorial
development
and ethnodevelopment of quilombo communities. These initiatives
comprise a set of programs of MDA, namely: the Second National Land
Reform Plan
(PNRA), the National Program to Strengthen Family Agriculture (PRONAF), the
National Sustainable Rural Development Program
and Quilombos Brazil Programme,
the latter coordinated by SEPPIR/PR. These measures are intended to broaden and
strengthen the economic
participation of rural women workers by guaranteeing
access to productive resources, their social participation and the promotion
of
citizenship.

319. To broaden the women’s participation and social control in public
policies, the MDA developed several actions through the
Programme for the
Promotion of Gender, Race and Ethnic Equality of the Secretariat of Territorial
Development (PPIGRE):

• Expansion of the number of women representatives in the National
Sustainable Rural Development Council (CONDRAF) and inclusion
of a greater
number of women’s organizations in its membership.

• Creation within the CONDRAF of the Standing Committee for the
Promotion of Gender, Race and Ethnicity Equality to deepen the
discussions and
social control actions of the policies in the area, as well as to study and
propose alternative sources of funding
to enable public policies.

• Encouraging the social participation of rural women workers’
organizations by training advisers and state collegiate
organs, with the
inclusion of a module on gender and sustainable rural development.

• Approval by the proposition of civil society in the Plenary Session
of the National Sustainable Rural Development of an equal
composition among men
and women in collegiate bodies, besides several directives aimed at promoting
gender equality.

• Drafting of the Strengthening Rural Women in Territorial Development
Project, which aims to develop and integrate actions
stimulating and expanding
participation and integration of rural women in the social management of
territorial development. Since
early 2009, MDA has been developing in
partnership with the Evergreen Feminist Organization and the March Eighth
Women’s Center,
actions of mobilization, consciousness-raising and
training of rural women to stimulate and expand their participation in the
process
of social management of territorial development, access to public
policies to support the production and sales and those that ensure
their rights
to citizenship and land. These actions are being implemented in 84 Territories
of Citizenship of the 26 states of the
federation and the Federal District. The
work involves performing diagnostics on the implementation of gender policies
promoted by
the MDA, mapping productive women’s groups, establishing
women’s Working Groups in the Territorial Collegiate and several
seminars,
courses and workshops with the women family farmers and technical advisers to
empower them on rural gender relations, inequalities
in access to public
policies and specific policies programs, including the National Rural Women
Workers Documentation Program (PNDTR),
Rural Women’s Productive
Organization Program (POPMR), credit policy, the joint access to land policy,
the technical assistance
and rural extension policy and the territorial
development.

320. Each of the rural women’s policies was developed within the
framework of a participation and social control process. From
the creation of
the PNDTR until nowadays, the program has its planning and evaluation conducted
by the National Management Committee
and by 27 State Management Committees. In
the case of Women’s PRONAF, an Inter-ministerial Working Group (IWG) was
established
that, from 2003 to 2004, included the representation of various
social organizations. The IWG aimed at developing a funding policy
for family
farms, on credit, attuned to the women’s specific needs and built in
intense dialogue with existing credit networks
in order to expand the productive
capacity and ability of the organized activities, managed and made by rural
women. Along the same
lines, in order to monitor its implementation the
Women’s PRONAF Taskforces, regional meetings that enable and promote
special
credit appraisal, were developed with the participation of managers,
financial agents, extension agents and social organizations.

321. The POPMR, established in 2007, also has in the instances of
participation and social control in its management. The National
Management
Committee, which has the role of planning and evaluating the implementation of
the program, has the participation of government
agencies and representatives of
rural producers and women’s social movement networks, besides the
representation of women from
mixed social movements.

322. The policies aimed at women who were settled after land reform were
evaluated in regional meetings attended by the National Institute
for
Colonization and Land Reform (INCRA), socioenvironmental consultants and women
organized in social movements fighting for land
reform in Brazil. Besides these
events, in September 2007 a national workshop was held to plan policies for
settled women for the
period of 2008–2011.

323. In partnership with the SOF the MDA is also developing a program aiming
to promote awareness and training on gender equality
policies for rural women.
The program deals with issues such as the Rural Women Workers Documentation
Program, the credit, joint
access to land and technical assistance policies, and
rural extension and territorial development. This work involved diagnostics
on
the implementation of gender policies promoted by MDA, with several seminars,
courses and meetings held with women’s organizations
to enable them
technically for production, gender relations in the rural areas and inequalities
in the access to public policies.

324. In the area of specialized technical assistance, the gender dimension in
the contents and criteria for selecting projects was
incorporated into the
National Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Programme (PRONATER), through
the Sector PRONATER, now taking
into account the needs of women rural workers.
The Federal Government has been financing activities in the area to the State
Governments
and civil society organizations under the PRONAF Training. Projects
led by rural women were supported with a special highlight on
the call for
projects specific for women rural workers. In the 2004–2009 period, 90
agreements for technical assistance to
women rural workers were signed with a
total investment of R$16 million. The National Technical Assistance and Rural
Extension Policy
was consolidated as a program, with its own budget forecast, in
the 2008–2011 PPA, having been incorporated a specific action
of Technical
Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER) for women rural workers.

325. In 2008, MDA established the Women’s Sector Network, composed by
representatives of public and private ATER providers,
to promote social and
institutional dialogue and qualify the women’s demands in ATER. The
Network articulates and trains its
members and monitors the incorporation of
specific compulsory goals for women on the Asbraer Network projects (Brazilian
Association
of State Entities of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension) and
Civil Society projects. The MDA also conducted a survey to assess
the
incorporation of specific actions for women in the projects contracted by the
Ministry in the period between 2004–2008,
which demonstrated the
importance of strengthening and/or creating tools to ensure the ATER attendance
to rural women. The trend
goes toward expanding the supply and qualification of
such services and broadening the women’s social participation and
conditions
for achieving equality and autonomy.

Program for Productive Organization of Rural Women – POPMR

326. In 2008, MDA launched the Program for Productive Organization of Rural
Women to implement comprehensive actions to strengthen
the rural women’s
productive organizations in order to ensure their access to public policies to
support production and sales
as well as to promote economic autonomy, encourage
the exchange of information and technical, cultural, organizational, management
and marketing knowledge, and to enrich the principles of feminist and solidarity
economy. So it has been realizing:

• The identification of rural women’s productive organizations.
Through coordination with women’s social movements,
productive
organizations and solitary economy networks, and in dialogue with the
Secretariat of Solidarity Economy of the Ministry
of Labour and Employment
(SENAES/MTE), 9,402 projects were identified for rural women, producing food,
services and generating income.

• The sales and marketing support for rural women’s productive
organizations. In the Feminist and Solidarity Economy Fairs
in the states of
Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia, over 480 exhibitors from 230
women’s productive groups participated
in the marketing and training
activities, representing more than 100 municipalities located in 15 Territories
of Citizenship.

• Financial support to productive groups. By public calls realized from
2006 to 2009, about R$16.6 million have been invested
through 71 funded
projects, benefiting over 25,000 women organized in productive groups.

• Training in public policies. The training activities involving around
460 women representatives of productive groups from
26 states and the Federal
District and from 44 Territories of Citizenship were conducted in order to
expand their access to public
policies and introduce into their organizational
and productive practices the principles of feminist and solitary economy and
agroecology.

• Training for projects and work plans development in order to sign
agreements, qualifying the demand and expanding the access
to public
policies.

• Promoting research on policies to support production and sales,
assessing the access and type of service provided by technical
assistance and
rural extension and by socioenvironmental consultancy, as well as by the Food
Purchase Program.

327. To contribute to the autonomy and social emancipation process of rural
women workers, investment projects for structuring productive
and sales units in
rural areas specific to rural women were also supported. The Specific Call for
Rural Women sought to strengthen
and/or encourage their inclusion in income
generating activities aimed at crops diversification and agroecology on family
farms and
land reform. Eight projects from different regions of the country were
approved, receiving funds totaling R$1 million.

328. The Federal Government also carried out local and national meetings and
seminars to encourage the participation of women rural
workers’ productive
organizations in the National Family Farm and Land Reform Fairs, besides
providing all financial support
to ensure their presence. In order to give
visibility to women’s participation, a catalog of products and
organizations has
been produced and a space for the exhibitors’ stands has
been structured.

329. The increase in participation of the organizations led by women observed
in the IV National Family Farm and Land Reform Fair
(FENAFRA) was significant,
from only 1.4% in the first edition in 2004 to 22.9% in the latest edition,
2008. Certainly, this increase
resulted from the strategy of strengthening the
women’s participation, explicitly presented in the Exhibitor’s
Guidelines,
prepared by the MDA in 2007, which recommends to the state
coordinators to mobilize and include at least 30% of women-owned and coordinated
enterprises. Meetings with representatives of social movements and rural
producers’ networks were also held to discuss their
participation in
FENAFRA and the National Seminar of Rural Sales Policies for Women in December
2007, when all rural sales policies
developed by the Federal Government were
discussed and the recommendations for equal participation of women and men were
adopted.
In the 2008 edition, held in Rio de Janeiro, the women’s
enterprises were represented by 177 groups.

Access to credit

330. Regarding the rural women’s access to credit, it is important to
mention the production funding through PRONAF credit,
which in the period
between 2003–2008 signed 35,697 contracts, representing a volume over
R$247.25 million. Established in
the 2004–2005 Harvest Plan, Women’s
PRONAF is a special line of credit for women, viewed as part of the instruments
for
access, increased autonomy, recognition of the economic rights of rural
women and equality between men and women on family farms.
In the same direction,
the PRONAF’s operator agents were trained to expand women’s
participation in credit and implement
changes in the PRONAF’s Aptitude
Declaration, now mandatorily made on behalf of the couple.

331. As a result of these actions, in the 2005/2006 harvest there was a
considerable increase both in the number of contracts (8,822)
and in the amount
financed by Women’s PRONAF (equivalent to R$56 million), and the Northeast
started to lead the number of
operations and the volume of resources. In the
2006/2007 harvest, Women’s PRONAF accounted for 10,854 contracts and a
volume
of almost R$63 million borrowed, confirming the uptrend. It is also worth
noting that in the 2009/2010 harvest there was an increase
from one to three
lines of investment, expanding the access of women family farmers that access
funding through Groups A or A/C (cost
or investment in land reform).

332. Besides, under the More Food Programme, the Support Women’s credit
was established in 2008 as one of the Install Credit
modalities. Such a type of
loan is aimed at strengthening and developing economic activities undertaken by
women’s groups,
being restricted to plot holders and associative or
cooperative projects of women’s productive groups. The credit can be used
to organize the economic activities such as acquisition of machinery and
equipment, raw materials, implementation of collective production
projects
and/or associative, collective or condominium improvement of production,
sales’ costs, food processing, and large,
medium and small-sized animals.
Each female plot holder is entitled to a credit of R$2,400, released in three
installments of R$800.

[*] In accordance with the information
transmitted to States parties regarding the processing of their reports, the
present document
was not formally edited before being sent to the United Nations
translation services.